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INSPIRATION 


Considered  as  a  Trend 


/BY 

D.  W.  FAUNCE,  D.  D. 
Author  of  ^^ Hours  with  a  Sceptic  ** 


4VJ 


PHILADELPHIA 

AMERICAN  BAPTIST  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 

1896 


Copyright  1896  by  the 
American  Baptist  Puplication  Society 


jptom  tbe  Socfetis's  own  ipress 


BeMcateb 


TO 


Rev.  W.  H.  p.  FAUNCE,  D.  D. 

MY   SON    IN   THE   FI.ESH 

IN  THE  SPIRIT 

AND  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE  GOSPEIy 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


In  his  former  volume  entitled,  "  Prayer  as  a 
Theory  and  a  Fact,"  the  ''Fletcher  Prize  Essay," 
the  author  of  this  book  attempted  to  show  that 
prayer  involves  two  persons,  God  and  man.  The 
various  lines  of  proof  for  the  Divine  existence  were 
briefly  named.  They  all  show  direction  rather 
than  attainment.  It  was  said,  ''These  various  ways 
of  seizing  upon  the  idea  of  God  are  by  no  means 
exclusive  of  each  other.  They  are  methods  suited 
to  unlike  minds.  But  there  are  minds  so  consti- 
tuted that  an  unmistakable  trend  is  more  convinc- 
ing than  the  sight  of  the  ultimate  goal.  Enclosed 
in  a  circular  box  that  men  call  a  compass,  is  a  deli- 
cate needle  which,  however  you  disturb  it,  trembles 
back  to  its  pole.  And  it  does  this  because  all  over 
the  earth  run  unseen  magnetic  currents  converging 
toward  an  unseen  magnetic  center  far  away  in 
the  north.  Men  sail  on  every  ocean  of  the  world 
and  measure  their  land  on  every  continent  of  the 
globe  by  that  trend  of  the  magnetic  currents 
toward  the  pole.  But  no  mortal  foot  ever  touched 
that  pole,  no  mortal  eye  ever  saw  it.  It  is  the 
world  over  only  a  trend.  And  not  only  the  earth 
beneath,  but  the  wide  heavens  above  us,  are  mapped 
off  in  lines  of  gigantic  boundary  by  the  steady 
trend  toward  a  pole  no  man  ever  saw  or  touched. 

5 


PREFATORY    NOTE 


The  trend  toward  God  in  all  forms  of  human 
thought  is  just  as  distinct." 

This  volume  aims  to  carry  out  and  newly  apply 
the  thought  of  trend  as  there  expressed.  The 
form  of  argument  used  there  for  the  Divine  exist- 
ence is  used  here  for  the  Divine  inspiration.  It  is 
insisted  that  trend,  the  strongest  proof  in  the 
one  case,  is  the  strongest  proof  in  the  other. 
What  if  the  method  God  intended  us  to  use  in 
proving  his  own  being  and  his  own  revelation  is 
one?  So  too,  it  may  be  that  the  trend  in  the 
various  theories  of  inspiration  proposed  by  devout 
students  of  the  Bible  and  that  shown  by  the  Bible 
itself,  deserve  notice.  No  new  theory  is  here  pro- 
posed ;  but  the  theories  devoutly  held  and  the  facts 
declared  and  involved  in  the  Scriptures  and  con- 
firmed in  the  Christian  experience,  are  passed  in 
brief  review — to  find  in  them  all  an  unmistakable 
trend. 

So  broad  a  subject  as  this  of  inspiration  will 
present  itself  to  men  under  various  aspects.  It 
can  be  studied  in  manifold  relations.  It  may  be 
considered  as  an  inbreathing  with  reference  to  its 
source,  or  as  an  impulse  with  reference  to  its 
power.  It  may  be  considered  as  a  process  with 
reference  to  its  method,  or  as  a  product  with  ref- 
erence to  its  results  as  found  in  a  book.  Only 
one  of  the  many  ways  of  considering  the  subject  is 
here  undertaken — that  of  tre7id.  Hence  the  title, 
"  Inspiration  Considered  as  a  Trend." 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  "  trend,"  like  all  our 
mental  and  moral  terms,  was  primarily  used  in  a 
physical  sense.     It  is    now    used    to    signify  the 

6 


PREFATORY    NOTE 


tendency  that  makes  for  an  end  and  also  for  the 
potency  that  gains  it.  The  ''magnetic  trend"  in 
physics  is  a  term  employed  not  only  to  describe  a 
tendency,  but  to  define  a  force  attaining  constantly 
a  definite  end.  Used  in  political,  in  literary,  in 
historical,  and  in  moral  statement,  it  declares  not 
only  developmental  direction,  but  achieved  potency 
covering  alike  process  and  result. 

Nor  let  any  man  think  that  the  idea  of  trend 
reduces  inspiration  to  its  lowest  terms.  Trends 
do  indeed  differ  in  intensity.  But  the  accumula- 
tion of  facts  which  show  the  potency  of  this 
trend,  raises  the  certainty  and  the  character  of  this 
method  of  proof  above  that  of  any  one  theory  or  of 
all  theories,  and  so  lifts  it  into  the  highest  possible 
position. 

If  the  satisfaction  gained  by  a  fresh  study  of 
this  view  of  inspiration  shall  equal,  in  the  mind  of 
any  reader,  that  enjoyed  by  the  writer  of  these 
pages  in  their  preparation,  he  will  be  abundantly 

rewarded. 

D.  W.  F. 

Pawtucket,  R.  I. 


CONTENTS 


.   CHAPTER  I 

THE    SUBJECT    STATED 

Section  I.     The  Questions  Involved, 13 

Importance  of  the  subject.  Duty  of  investigation  and 
decision.  The  burden  of  proof.  The  men  who  accept 
the  Book  as  inspired.  The  interests  at  stake.  Defi- 
niteness  or  indefiniteness  of  beUef  and  conviction. 
The  *'  burning  question." 

Section  II.     The  Recognition  of  Trend, 30 

Differing  theories.  Each  may  help.  No  one  of  them 
held  in  absolute  consistency.  All  show  a  trend.  The 
trend  the  chief  thing.  The  methods  to  be  used  in 
seeking  the  trend. 

CHAPTER  n 

THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 

Section  I.     Our  Natural  Intuitions, 42 

Limitations  of  the  inductive  method.  New  Testament 
basis  may  be  questioned.  Old  Testament  also.  Going 
back  to  our  "original  intuitions."  They  all  demand 
a  Bible,  i.  Liable  to  be  overlooked.  2.  Corrobo- 
rated by  other  evidence.  3.  Trustworthy  as  far  as 
they  go.  4.  Liable  to  misuse.  5.  Are  roused  by  the 
Christian  facts.  6.  Consistent  with  each  other.  7. 
All  prophetic  and  not  final.  8.  All  endorsed,  puri- 
fied, liberated,  by  the  Bible.     9.  Wliich  to   do  this 

9 


CONTENTS 


must  be  inspired  of  God.     lo.  Both   they   and   the 
Bible  disclose  a  common  trend. 

Section  II.     Our  Actual  Bible, 71 

I.  Is  a  growth.  2.  Its  method  historical  and  biographi- 
cal. 3.  Its  Old  Testament  calls  for  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 4.  Its  New  Testament  is  to  be  read  into  the 
Old.  5.  Christ's  use  of  the  Old  Testament.  6.  The 
vital  thought  that  makes  the  Bible  one  unique  book. 
7.   Everywhere  the  trend. 

CHAPTER  III 

THE    EXPERIENTIAL    ARGUMENT 

Section  I.     The  Contents  of  the  Christian  Experi- 
ence,       114 

I.  This  experience  a  fact.  2.  It  is  co-ordinated  with 
biblical  facts.  3.  Its  worth  as  an  argument  for  inspira- 
tion.    4.   Its  evidence  as  a  supplementary  fact. 

Section  II.     The  Worth  of  this  Experience  as  an  Ar- 
gument,       123 

I.  Its  weight  with  those  not  Christians.  2.  May  not 
alone  satisfy  investigators.  3.  Subordination  of  spir- 
itual to  intellectual  method.  4.  The  biblical  redac- 
tors. 

Section  III.     Christian  Experience  as  a  Safeguard,   131 

I.  The  "inward  blessing"  and  the  written  word.  2.  A 
saving  restraint. 

Section  IV.    What  is  Involved  in  the  Christian  Ex- 
perience,     135 

I.   In  it  a  demand  for  inspiration  as  a  fit  thing.     2.   As 
an  expected  thing.     3.   As  an  authoritative  thing.     4. 
As  a  satisfactory  thing.     5.  The  testimony  is  unique 
and  universal  in  each  of  these  respects. 
10 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    WARRANTED    DEDUCTIONS 

Section  I.    What  we  are  Warranted  to  Expect,    .     .150 
I.   As  to  an  inspiring  Spirit.     His  testimony  to  inspiration. 

Section  II.     The  Character  of  Men, 153 

I.  The  testimony  of  the  men  he  inspires  as  to  their  own 
inspiration.  Their  testimony  to  the  inspiration  of  other 
inspired  men.  2.  Our  Lord's  testimony.  His  promise 
and  the  claimed  fulfillment. 

Section  III.     The  General  Course  of  Development,  .   166 
I.   Development  of  the  inspired  facts  and  their  record. 

CHAPTER  V 

THE    HUMAN    AND   THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

Section  I.    The  Human  Element, 175 

I.  The  personality  of  the  writers.  2.  The  signs  show- 
ing the  time  when  they  wrote.  3.  This  element  not 
disquieting,  but  assuring.  4.  Human  element  neces- 
sary in  order  to  the  divine.  5.  Human  element  a 
strength  and  not  a  weakness.  6.  Everywhere  the 
trend. 

Section  II.     The  Divine  Element, 190 

I.  Divine  record  of  ordinary  things.  2.  Of  extraordi- 
nary things.  3.  Divine  selection  of  fit  men  to  inspire. 
4.  Peculiar  prophetic  inspiration  needed.  5.  Parallel 
divine  and  human  trend. 

CHAPTER  VI 

DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

Section  I.     Anthropomorphism, 206 

I J 


CONTENTS 

Section  II.     Chronology, 208 

Section  III.  Various  Readings, 216 

Section  IV.     Unintelligibleness, 218 

Section  V.     Unfulfilled  Prophecy, 219 

Section  VI.     Discrepancy  of  View, 230 

Section  VII.     Topographical  Discrepancies,  ....  233 

Section  VIII.     Alleged  Savagery 239 

Section  IX.     Continuous  Revelation, 242 


12 


INSPIRATION  CONSIDERED  AS  A  TREND 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    SUBJECT    STATED 

Here  is  a  book  called  "  The  Bible."     For  it  a 
very  peculiar  claim  is  entered.     It  is  held  by  some 
that  its  statements,  not  only  of 
ordinary  but   of    extraordinary      mt,    q     ^• 

facts,  have  a  decree,  more  or  t      i     j 

,        '         1  ^        r    T  •  Involved 

less  complete,  or  divme  sanc- 
tion and  inspiration.  If,  indeed,  God  has  had  to 
do  with  this  book  as  with  no  other,  that  fact  is 
of  the  utmost  importance.  To  make  such  a  claim 
if  unwarranted  is  a  terrible  mistake — a  mistake  only 
equalled  by  the  rejection  of  the  claim  if  the  book 
is  really  inspired  of  God.  On  this  claim,  since  it 
comes  to  every  man  living  in  a  Christian  land,  some 
decision  is  to  be  made.  Every  man  has  a  very 
serious  responsibility,  not  only  for  doing  something 
about  this  claim,  but  for  doing  it  wisely  and  rightly. 
If,  indeed,  this  book  had  received  as  yet  but  little 
attention,  it  were  another  thing.  If  it  were  an  ob- 
scure publication,  by  writers  little  known  in  any 
age  of  the  world,  one  might  with  some  show  of 
reason  wait  for  a  time.  If  it  had  made  no  mark  on 
any  generation,  one  in  a  busy  world  might  perhaps 

13 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

hold  himself  in  some  suspense  about  examining  it. 
But  here  is  a  book  so  remarkable  that  foremost 
minds  have  devoted  long  years  to  its  critical  study, 
and  have  come  to  see  that  it  so  far  exceeds  as  to 
supersede  other  books  on  its  peculiar  theme.  It  has 
swayed  the  best  men.  It  has  met  deep  perplex- 
ities. It  has  awakened  sublime  aspirations.  It  has 
inspired  useful  lives.  It  has  assuaged  human  sor- 
rows. It  has  kindled  strongest  hopes.  It  has 
made  men  brave  and  women  pure. 

Nor  has  it  done  these  things  alone  for  any  one 
class  of  mankind.  True,  it  is  the  peculiar  heri- 
tage of  a  great  number  of  thoughtful,  devout,  and 
scholarly  men,  who  have  brought  to  it  disciplined 
minds,  accurate  habits  of  investigation,  and  the 
best  culture  of  the  schools.  But  it  has  had  an 
immense  hold,  as  well,  upon  the  millions  of  those 
strong,  stalwart  middle-class  men  ;  those  men  who 
with  clear  heads  are  not  likely  to  be,  on  any  large 
scale,  for  any  considerable  time,  very  wrong  in 
their  better  judgments  ;  those  men  who  are  the 
best  class  when  arrayed  as  a  j  ury  for  deciding  upon 
evidence  submitted  to  them  ;  the  class  which  has 
been  foremost  in  prosecuting  moral  reforms  and 
producing  the  great  moral  leaders  of  mankind. 
These  men  never  would  have  taken  up  this  book 
had  they  not  believed  that  in  some  sense  or  other 
God  has  had  to  do  with  it  as  with  no  other  book. 
These  men  have  held  it  to  be  in  some  way  a  di- 
vinely inspired  volume.  Such  a  profound  convic- 
tion, while  not  a  decisive  evidence,  warrants  us  in 
demanding  for  this  claim  at  least  a  fair  degree  of 
attention. 

14 


THE   SUBJECT   STATED 


Under  these  circumstances,  the  burden  of  proof 
for  the  rejection  of  this  claim  clearly  lies  with  its 
opponents.  For  here  is  the  book.  It  exists. 
Somebody  wrote  it.  Its  existence  is  a  fact  in  lit- 
erature to  be  explained  on  some  reasonable  theory 
before  it  can  reasonably  be  rejected.  Its  influence 
as  well  as  its  existence  is  a  thing  for  which  one  is 
bound  to  give  some  account  if  the  book  is  to  be 
discarded.  One  must  work  logically  in  any  process 
of  denial  and  rejection.  The  book  has  had  such 
a  prodigious  influence  on  the  world  that  no  man 
may  regard  it  as  a  foolish  volume.  In  it  is  a 
potency  of  some  kind.  It  is  the  most  widely 
printed  and  largely  read  book  upon  the  planet  to- 
day. What  is  it  that  makes  it  the  most  living  book 
in  human  thought,  gathering  millions  every  seventh 
day  to  study  its  contents,  to  hear  its  exposition, 
and  to  learn  by  one  day's  teachings  how  to  live  on 
all  the  other  days  of  the  week  ?  Has  any  other 
book  such  vital  force }  What  is  it  that  gives  it 
such  hold  on  the  best  portions  of  the  human  race  ? 

These  men  all  believe  that,  in  some  sense,  in 
some  way,  divine  authority  attaches  to  the  Bible. 
This  does  not  prove  its  unique  claim.  But  it  shows 
that,  if  a  man  is  to  decline  to  accept  the  book,  he 
must  do  so  for  some  good  logical  reason  given  only 
after  examination  of  the  book  itself,  and  after 
carefully  weighing  these  claims  made  for  it  by  this 
great  body  of  men.  These  men  who  receive  it, 
many  of  them,  are  prayerful  men.  They  believe 
in  God.  They  have  moral  as  well  as  intellectual 
standards  of  measurement.  They  are  wont  to  de- 
cide questions  involving  morals,  in  part  at  least,  by 

15 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


a  spiritual  instinct.  They  have  a  sharpened  spir- 
itual appetite  and  they  know  bread  from  stone. 
They  do  not  gather  grapes  from  thorns. 

With  these  men  one  should  differ  with  great 
hesitation  on  a  question  of  such  importance.  The 
strong  probabilities  are  in  favor  of  a  true  spiritual 
trend  in  the  course  they  take  on  this  matter.  Their 
conviction  should  be  given  diie  weight.  In  exam- 
ining this  question  of  an  inspired  volume,  we 
should  act  not  only  with  reference  to  good  men, 
but  also  as  in  the  presence  of  God.  If  it  be  not 
true  that  these  claims  can  be  substantiated,  there 
is  still  left  us  a  belief  that  God  is,  and  that  most 
likely  he  is  the  answerer  of  prayer.  And  the  wis- 
dom that  is  necessary  he  can  impart.  There  can 
be  no  matter  over  which  one  should  spend  himself 
in  more  urgent  and  agonizing  supplication  than 
over  doubts  which  may  come  in  about  a  divine 
revelation  to  man.  Only  after  earnest  prayer  for 
the  Enlightening  Spirit  can  a  man  reasonably  re- 
ject such  a  book  as  the  Bible.  For  the  deepest 
moral  instincts  and  the  most  fundamental  convic- 
tions of  the  human  heart  as  they  are  stirred  within 
us  are  to  have  a  voice  in  deciding  upon  these 
claims.  Our  whole  complex  selfhood  is  to  be  con- 
sulted. Our  very  fears  are  to  come  into  play.  It 
would  be  the  saddest  of  all  sad  things  if  it  should 
turn  out  that  the  book  we  have  received  as  from 
God  is,  after  all,  only  a  fortuitous  assemblage  of 
myths  ;  a  series  of  mistakes  gathered  about  a  mis- 
take. And  we  should  be  even  worse  off  if  the 
book  should  turn  out  to  be  a  composite  of  part 
fable  and  part  fact.    In  that  case  it  would  be  worse 

i6 


THE   SUBJECT   STATED 


for  US  than  if  it  were  a  cheat ;  for  a  cheat  de- 
tected can  be  dismissed.  But  a  book  that  should 
mLx  miracle  with  myth  and  fiction  with  fact  would 
furnish  the  worst  of  perplexities  to  honest  souls. 
Better  no  guide  than  one  who  does  not  know  the 
way.  Our  own  doubts  are  enough  without  his.  If 
reduced  to  guessing,  we  can  do  our  own.  But  it 
would,  indeed,  be  a  thing  to  say  in  tearful  tones, 
that  this  book  after  all  may  mislead.  All  that  is 
best  in  humanity  would  be  forced  into  mourning, 
and  all  that  is  worst  would  inevitably  receive  im- 
petus from  such  a  decision.  A  vast  deal  is  at 
stake.  We  shall  have  lost  not  only  faith  in  the 
book  as  from  God,  but  faith  in  humanity.  Its  fair- 
est and  best  portion,  its  men  whose  moral  instincts 
are  the  highest,  who  are  most  tender  and  reverent 
in  their  inquiries  are,  in  that  case,  wrong.  They 
are  not  simply  wrong  on  one  point,  but  vitally 
wrong  in  their  most  earnest  religious  convictions. 
The  wrong  pulsates  in  every  heart-beat  and  passes 
through  every  artery  and  vein  of  the  moral 
nature.  These  men  have  believed  that  the  book 
differs  in  kind  and  in  authority  from  all  other 
books.  They  take  its  texts  as  the  proof  of  doc- 
trine and  as  the  law  of  the  Christian  life  ;  and 
without  always  expressly  defining  what  they  mean 
by  inspiration,  they  consciously  or  unconsciously 
give  the  book  substantially  the  homage  due  to  the 
claim.  If  they  are  wrong,  not  only  is  it  a  rejec- 
tion of  a  book  to  which  they  must  no  longer  give 
their  respect  and  reverence,  but  the  damage  to  all 
their  best  ideals  of  human  nature  is  something 
immense.  The  best  men  in  the  line  of  the  best 
B  17 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 


things  are  deceived.  Humanity  at  its  highest  is 
the  sport  of  accident,  the  victim  of  mistake ;  pos- 
sibly, also,  of  imposture.  It  may  be  said  that  the 
scientific  method  is  careless  of  results  if  it  can  only 
discover  the  truth.  But  can  any  man  afford,  in 
deciding  what  is  the  truth,  to  refuse  care  about  the 
results  ?  By  the  fruit,  in  part  at  least,  we  know 
the  tree. 

Nor  is  this  all.  If  there  has  been  given  to  us 
a  revelation  from  God  we  owe  him  a  duty  there- 
for. We  are,  if  this  book  is  really  a  Divine  rev- 
elation, not  only  striking  a  blow  at  humanity  by 
its  rejection,  but  we  are  doing  a  great  wrong  to 
God.  A  mistake  here  is  a  sin.  The  wrong  to  him, 
on  the  one  hand,  of  receiving  what  he  has  not 
given,  can  be  matched  only  by  the  other  wrong  of 
rejecting  what  he  has  actually  inspired.  Anyway, 
there  is  vast  responsibility  for  doing  either  the  one 
or  the  other. 

It  may  be  urged  that  many  plain  Christians 
have  never  been  over  the  whole  ground  of  the  evi- 
dence for  believing  the  Bible  to  be  inspired  of 
God,  But  do  they  need  to  do  so }  They  have  a 
kind  of  growing  proof  which  comes  from  acting 
upon  the  belief.  They  will  not  be  obliged  to  give 
up  what  they  have  discovered  of  its  value  and 
potency  in  order  to  be  fair  in  their  dealing  with  it. 
They  must  not  be  required  to  begin  de  novo,  as  if 
the  book  were  not  true,  and  then  start  to  prove  it 
to  be  from  God.  In  mathematics,  is  a  man  to  be 
asked  to  empty  himself  of  all  his  knowledge 
gained  by  forty  years'  use  of  the  multiplication 
table  ?     He  began  in  childhood  by  learning  it  as  an 

i8 


THE   SUBJECT   STATED 


exercise  of  memory.  He  assumed  it  to  be  correct. 
And  for  all  these  forty  years,  in  daily  use  of  it,  he 
never  found  it  to  fail  of  being  true.  Here  comes 
a  man  and  expresses  a  doubt  about  its  accuracy. 
There  have  been  men  who  made  this  challenge. 
They  have  bidden  this  accountant  give  up  forty 
years  of  experience  and  prove  that  two  and  two 
make  four!  He  will  do  nothing  of  the  sort.  The 
one  to  produce  evidence  is  the  objector,  not  the 
believer  in  the  multiplication  table.  He  has  em- 
ployed it  in  his  work  every  day,  and  in  the  most 
practical  of  all  ways,  that  of  experimental  use,  he 
has  found  it  trustworthy.  He  now  stands  by  his 
proved  work.  He  has  amassed  proofs.  He  is 
sure  about  that  multiplication  table.  It  would  be 
strangely  unfair  to  himself,  to  his  science,  to  all 
the  interests  involved,  for  him  to  start  by  surren- 
dering his  well-founded  conviction.  Let  the  ob- 
jector start  with  doubt.  Let  him  enter  on  his 
proofs  de  novo,  if  he  has  any  to  offer.  The  burden 
is  clearly  on  his  shoulders.  The  man  who  has 
studied  the  book  and  practised  its  precepts  and 
yielded  himself  to  its  spirit  is  certain  that  it  is 
like  no  other  book.  He  may  have  little  analytical 
power.  Into  discussions  about  the  degree,  kind, 
method,  of  divine  influence  exerted  on  the  writers, 
he  may  or  may  not  enter.  But  exactly  in  propor- 
tion to  his  spiritual  experience  of  the  unique  power 
of  the  book  will  be  his  regard  for  it,  and  his  be- 
lief that  God  has  had  to  do  with  it  as  with  no 
other  book.  In  such  cases  we  may  admit  a  predis- 
position like  that  of  a  mathematician  for  his 
science.      The    mathematician    would    claim    that 

19 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

thereby  he  was  not  the  worse  but  the  better  judge 
of  a  mathematical  problem.  There  are  many  side 
questions  appealing  to  the  reason.  But  the  main 
appeal  of  the  Bible  is  to  the  spiritual  and  moral 
nature.  And  therefore  the  moral  and  spiritual 
man  is  the  better  fitted  for  a  just  decision.  When 
experience  in  mathematical  science  is  a  bar  to  fair 
judgment  in  case  of  a  volume  on  mathematics, 
then  a  long  and  strong  religious  experience  may  be 
considered  a  hindrance  to  the  examination  of  a 
volume  on  morals  and  religion  like  the  Bible.  A 
sympathetic  interest  in  its  object  and  its  methods, 
as  well  as  a  knowledge  of  its  whole  scope,  is 
needed.  There  is  to  be  exercised,  not  so  much  on 
single  texts  as  upon  the  great  comprehensive  idea 
of  the  book,  the  most  careful  moral  as  well  as 
intellectual  judgment  before  a  man  can  honestly 
reject  the  claim  of  its  inspiration. 

Perhaps  it  will  be  found  that  there  are  vastly 
more  difficulties  in  discarding  its  true  and  proper 
inspiration  than  in  accepting  the  simplest  solution 
that  is  possible,  viz.,  that  it  is  God's  book  through 
man  and  for  man.  Perhaps  the  knowledge  of  the 
great  controlling  thought  of  the  book  may  make  it 
easier  to  believe  that  God  had  to  do  with  it  than 
that  it  is  merely  a  product  even  of  the  most 
exalted  human  genius.  We  may  find  that  all  our 
ways  of  accounting  for  it  are  needed  in  their  grand 
sum.  This  is  what  many  think.  If  they  are 
right,  it  is  a  great  truth  on  which  they  have  fallen. 
If  they  are  wrong,  it  is  a  great  mistake  they  have 
made.  Either  way,  the  decision  is  of  immense 
importance. 

20 


THE    SUBJECT   STATED 


This  importance  attaching  to  a  decision  in 
either  direction  is  at  once  obvious  from  the  inevi- 
table results.  Let  it  be  true  that  the  book  is  not 
inspired  by  God,  but  only  by  human  genius  how- 
ever exalted,  and  certain  inferences  cannot  but  be 
drawn  from  the  fact.  Let  it  be  true  that  the 
Hebrew  race,  foremost  and  purest  in  all  ethical 
and  spiritual  ideas,  have  in  this  book  presented 
the  world  with  a  literature  chiefly  religious,  but 
standing  on  a  basis,  so  far  as  authority  is  con- 
cerned, that  is  only  human — not  otherwise  in- 
spired than  are  all  human  productions  save  in 
degree — and  there  are  direct  inferences  of  a  sort 
wholly  different  from  those  warranted  by  a  belief 
that  it  has  both  human  and  divine  inspiration.  Let 
the  Old  Testament  come  to  be  regarded  as  only  a 
collection  of  annals,  songs,  prophecies,  and  prov- 
erbs, having  indeed  far  greater  value  than  those 
of  surrounding  nations,  but  with  no  special  and 
peculiar  endorsement  of  God,  then  it  has  no  other 
and  higher  authority  than  that  always  accorded  to 
human  productions  of  great  worth.  It  is  of  man 
only,  precisely  as  all  other  books  are  of  man  only. 
Every  man  feels  the  debasement  of  authority,  the 
lowering  of  tone,  the  prodigious  difference  of 
the  conception.  The  view  narrows  rather  than 
broadens.  For  no  view  can  be  so  broad,  so 
strong,  so  lofty,  so  sustained  as  that  which  finds 
in  this  book  a  sanction,  a  superintendence,  an  in- 
breathing not  accorded  to  any  other.  Let  the 
Old  Testament  be  regarded  as  merely  an  out- 
growth of  human  development,  and  it  still  has 
religious  value ;  but  we  must  take  this  currency 

21 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

at  a  fearful  discount.  Its  characters,  "real  or 
imaginary,"  will  still  serve  the  intellectual  world 
"to  point  a  moral  and  adorn  a  tale."  The  words 
of  Scripture  can  still  be  gracefully  quoted  to 
round  out  a  period.  They  can  be  a  happy  classical 
allusion.  The  old-time  Hebrews  can  serve  us  in 
literary  work  as  do  the  old-time  heroes  of  the 
Grecian  story.  They  can  be  used  to  illustrate  any 
exalted  idea  we  have  ourselves  originated.  We  can 
quote  from  the  Old  Testament  exactly  as  from  the 
Koran — when  it  is  an  endorsement  of  our  own 
belief.  It  will  be  among  the  sheaves  that  do 
obeisance  to  the  one  of  our  own  bmding.  But 
authority  is  gone  from  any  declaration  it  may  con- 
tain. Indeed,  we  judge  it  by  the  standard  of  our 
own  ideas,  approving  or  condemning  as  it  favors 
or  does  not  favor  our  own  conclusions.  It  would 
be  claimed  by  some  who  would  dispense  with  any 
special  divine  authority,  to  be  a  matter  of  com- 
paratively little  importance  whether  Abraham  or 
Moses,  whether  Elijah  or  David  ever  really  ex- 
isted. It  would  be  claimed  that  the  moral  impres- 
sion is  just  the  same  on  the  world  whether  they 
did  or  did  not  live. 

And  yet  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  some  men 
holding  very  lightly  by  the  inspiration  of  Scripture, 
do  not  go  to  this  length,  but  claim  that  at  least 
the  historical  accuracy  of  the  Old  Testament  must 
be  preserved.  For  they  see  that  these  lives  and 
these  acts  of  the  old  Hebrew  worthies  are  a 
long  series  of  preparatory  events,  and  that  any 
denial  of  them  spoils  the  cumulative  moral  im- 
pression  of  the  series,  and  that    thus   the  most 

22 


THE    SUBJECT    STATED 


important  part  of  the  moral  influence  would  be 
lost.  For  it  is  not  alone  in  the  individuality  of 
the  lives  in  which  these  grand  heroes  set  forth 
some  virtue  that  they  are  worth  most  to  the 
world,  but  because  they  are  as  links  of  a  chain, 
stones  of  an  arch,  lines  of  a  figure,  parts  of  a 
whole. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Take  any  one  individual  with 
his  characteristic  work  out  of  the  series  for  a 
moment,  that  you  may  hold  up  that  man  as  an 
object-lesson  and  his  work  as  an  example,  and  it 
does  make  a  vast  difference  to  the  impression 
whether  the  person  described  as  doing  the  work 
is  fictitious  or  real,  and  whether  his  alleged  deeds 
are  fancies  or  are  facts.  The  Hegelian  method 
of  treating  history  was  the  ''  impressionist  fashion." 
The  fact  was  held  to  be  of  little  worth.  The  im- 
portant thing  was  the  impression  on  the  minds  of 
succeeding  generations.  It  was  asked  why  we 
might  not  ignore  the  biblical  facts,  but  retain  the 
principle  involved  in  them.  Maurice  himself, 
touched  by  the  Hegelian  phase  of  thinking,  when 
writing  to  his  son  who  had  asked  him  ''  whether  a 
legend  which  appealed  to  conscience  might  not 
produce  the  same  good  results  as  an  actual  fact," 
was  obliged  to  answer  in  the  negative.  **  For," 
said  he,  ''  if  God  reveals  his  ideas  to  us,  the  reve- 
lation must  be  through  facts."  "  I  believe,"  he 
continues,  ''that  all  is  good  just  so  far  as  it  tests 
facts ;  and  all  is  bad  and  immoral  which  introduces 
the  notion  that  it  signifies  little  whether  they  turn 
out  to  be  facts  or  no."  If  it  shall  turn  out  that 
there  are  conceptions  of  facts  and  classes  of  events 

23 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

which  need  inspiration  for  any  fair  record  of  them, 
then  the  doctrine  of  a  divine  inspiration  could  not 
be  dismissed  from  the  Old  Testament  without  loss 
both  of  the  facts  and  of  their  moral  impression. 

If  we  come  to  the  New  Testament  with  our 
doubts  about  inspiration,  the  results  are  even  more 
obvious.  Let  it  once  be  held  that  the  Gospels  are 
accidental  narratives,  taking  their  shape  and  pre- 
senting their  contents  as  casual  fragments  ;  that 
the  Epistles  are  old  letters  which  by  chance  have 
escaped  oblivion,  and  so  are  valuable  only  as  show- 
ing an  individual  phase  of  passing  religious  thought, 
and  the  book  ceases  to  have  any  considerable  au- 
thority. And  doctrine,  held  on  the  strength  of  its 
statements,  must  be  held  loosely  and  tentatively. 
Merely  human  thought  never  cuts  the  same  circle 
twice  in  a  century.  Its  circumference  has  no 
more  a  fixed  point  than  has  its  changing  center. 
There  cannot  consistently  be  any  faith  save  faith 
in  change.  There  is  no  steadiness  save  that  of  a 
steady  flux  in  belief.  The  natural  religious  in- 
stincts are  all  that  remain  for  guidance ;  and  God 
himself  could  make  no  supernatural  revelation  that 
we  should  be  warranted  in  believing.  We  have 
estopped  certainty  by  questioning  the  best  certi- 
fied Christian  facts  and  doctrines  which  we  can 
imagine  to  be  given.  The  lack  of  inspiration  in 
the  New  Testament  makes  what  little  of  it  remains 
to  us  more  perplexing  than  if  it  had  never  been 
written.  For  it  raises  more  questions  than  it 
•solves,  and  the  sifting  of  probabilities  becomes  a 
new  and  a  confusing  labor.  And  yet,  if  the  book 
is  not  supernaturally  inspired,  we  must  undertake 

24 


THE    SUBJECT    STATED 


to  thread  this  labyrinth,  pitied  by  others,  and  most 
of  all  pitying  ourselves  in  our  doubtful  work.  It 
will  not  be  wise  to  assert  very  strongly  any  truth 
of  religion  ;  since  the  only  basis  is  our  own  falli- 
bility, and  there  is  no  ascertainable  standard  that 
is  not  liable  to  be  altered  by  our  own  personality. 

But  if  the  opposite  of  all  this  is  true,  there  is  a 
new  bright  world  flooded  for  us  by  perpetual  sun- 
shine. If  the  book  is  sanctioned  and  directed  and 
inbreathed  of  God,  if  the  human  authors  of  the 
book  in  their  highest  human  inspiration  were 
touched  and  illuminated  by  a  peculiar  divine  in- 
spiration, then  there  dawns  upon  us  the  happy 
possibility  of  having  some  good  degree  of  definite- 
ness  in  our  religious  beliefs.  That  fact  fixed,  our 
search  for  truth  in  religion  is  immensely  simplified. 
We  still  use  our  best  native  powers,  but  they  are 
working  in  a  new  atmosphere,  to  new  advantage, 
and  toward  moral  certainty  as  the  assured  result. 

Our  inquiry  then,  is  narrowed  to  these  two  ques- 
tions, viz.  .-Is  the  text  of  Scripture  fairly  preserved, 
and  what  does  the  text  mean  }  Reason  still  has  a 
place,  but  it  is  a  buttress  to  the  structure  built 
upon  the  foundation  of  a  divinely  authenticated 
revelation.  The  moral  instincts  are  still  of  value. 
For  they  are  roused  into  highest  activity  by  the 
truth  and  the  Spirit  of  God.  But  the  sovereign 
judge  from  whose  decision  there  is  no  appeal  will 
be  this  Bible.  A  multitude  of  things  can  now  be 
held  very  firmly.  Not  that  they  are  altogether 
understood.  A  man's  lack  of  understanding  as  to 
how  a  thing  can  be  so  is  now  seen  to  be  no  bar  to 
believing,  on  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  that  it  is 

25 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

SO.  And  thus  a  man's  creed  that  had  been  very 
short  and  hazy  and  vacillating  while  he  doubted  an 
inspired  Bible,  becomes  very  long  and  broad,  very 
deep  and  high,  very  sure  and  satisfying,  since  it 
has  for  its  authority  the  inspiration  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture. Apart  from  such  authority  it  is  almost  pre- 
sumptuous to  hold  many  a  thing  which  is  tradi- 
tionally received  even  by  those  who  doubt  or  deny 
this  supernatural  guidance.  But  the  book  accepted, 
to  hold  less  than  the  large,  full,  confident  truth 
would  be  a  wrong  to  God  and  to  one's  own  self. 
Fullness  of  belief,  strength  of  conviction,  and  the 
irrevocable  yielding  of  one's  intellectual  and  moral 
nature  to  the  sway  of  great  Christian  facts  and 
doctrines  will  be  secured  only  in  the  presence  of 
•divine  inspiration.  In  the  actual  conflict  with 
error  the  Christian  who  will  do  most  efficient  work 
is  he  who  wields,  with  strong  heart  and  steady 
head  and  practised  hand,  "  the  sword  of  the  Spirit 
which  is  the  v/ord  of  God."  There  will  be  a 
decisiveness  about  the  blows  he  strikes  and  an 
assurance  that  one  fights  in  a  winning  cause. 

And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  devout 
and  scholarly  men  who  claim  that  much  of  the 
prevalent  unbelief  in  the  Bible  would  be  at  once 
given  up  if  young  men  of  culture  who  come  to 
the  study  of  the  Bible  were  met  by  a  less  formal 
demand  for  the  belief  in  its  inspiration.  The  claim 
is  that  the  popular  prejudice  against  the  book  on 
account  of  its  miraculous  incidents,  on  account  of 
its  alleged  discrepancies  and  its  undeniable  diffi- 
culties, would  disappear  if  this  claim  of  its  Divine 
inspiration  were  modified.     It  would  be  possible 

26 


THE    SUBJECT    STATED 


to  gain  the  assent  of  men  who  are  not  yet  spirit- 
ually minded,  but  who   mean  to  be   intellectually 
honest  toward  the  book.    As  yet  they  are  hindered 
from  believing  its  religious  truths  because  obliged 
also  to   assent  to   a  large  number  of   statements 
against  which  they  are  now  rebellious.     Afterward, 
when  these  men  have  begun  on  the  moral  side  of 
religious  inquiry,  it  is  thought  they  may  come  to 
accept  statements  which  are  now  full  of  perplexity 
to  them.     Some  Christian  men,  loving  the  Bible 
themselves  but  in  close  sympathy  with  many  who 
doubt  even  if  they  do  not  deny  the  inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures,  have  proposed  in  this  way  to  make 
the  path  easier  for  the  perplexed  and  the  troubled. 
But  it  has  been  urged  in  reply  that  no  other 
subject  is  studied  by  the  surrender  of  facts ;  that 
to  give  up  a  part  is  not  anywhere  else  the  best  way 
to  gain  the  whole  ;  that  to  meet  in  this  way  one 
class  of  minds  is  to  unsettle  others.     It  is  indeed 
very  true  that  in  arguing  with  a  man  on  any  topic 
the  primary  thing  is  to  show  him  that,  believing 
one  thing,  he  is  thereby  compelled  to  go  on  and 
believe  another  truth  involved  in  the  one  he  admits. 
But  that  is  not  to  assert  that  you  believe  no  other 
truth  than  the  one  which  you  are  presenting  to 
him.      You    do    not    surrender    all    else   in   order 
to  assert  something  on  which  you  and  he  agree. 
Careful  thinkers   see  what  is  involved  in  denial. 
To-day  the  great  question  in  religious  inquiry  is  of 
the  basis  of  authority  rather  than  of  the  method 
of    reasoning.     The   more   legal    and    logical   any 
mind,  the  more  judicial  its  cast,  the  stronger  will 
be  its  demand  for  authority  in  religion.    Authentic 

27 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


documents  are  the  necessity  of  the  century  for  a 
religion  which  centers  in  a  great  historic  person 
like  Jesus  Christ.  Loose-jointed  minds  may  work 
in  other  ways,  but  trained  and  scholarly  men  will 
insist  on  documentary  evidence  as  to  historic  facts  ; 
and  when  some  of  the  facts  are  supernatural,  they 
will  crave  supernatural  accuracy  in  the  record  of 
them. 

Nor  is  this  conviction  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
volume  needed  alone  for  careful  and  cultured 
thinkers.  Others  as  well  need  this  foundation. 
The  great  mass  of  Christian  men,  men  of  large 
common  sense,  but  without  classical  training,  are 
the  ones  chiefly  needing  to  be  satisfied.  They  are 
the  bulk  of  the  Christian  community.  Those  who 
know  them  the  best  respect  their  convictions  the 
most.  They  are  the  safest  jury  with  which  to  en- 
trust moral  causes.  They  are  the  men  mainly  ad- 
dressed by  the  Bible.  For  merely  scholastic  ques- 
tions they  have  as  little  aptitude  as  they  have 
concern.  They  believe  in  the  reality  of  truth. 
They  have  mental  and  moral  health  enough  to  be- 
lieve that  the  truth  can  be  known.  They  feel  that 
the  Bible  is  for  them.  They  are  convinced  that 
they  are  able  to  make  up  their  minds  about  the 
truth.  They  think  the  book  was  given  them  for 
their  salvation  from  error  as  well  as  from  sin. 
They  know  it  as  the  most  democratic  of  books  in 
this  respect.  And  so,  this  book,  addressing  this 
great  and  grand  class  of  mankind  out  from  which 
have  come  foremost  leaders  in  moral  and  religious 
reforms,  has  an  immense  hold  upon  them  as  an  in- 
spired volume.      Its  Christ  sprang  from  this  class 

28 


THE    SUBJECT   STATED 


of  men.  Among  them  he  found  his  apostles  and 
out  of  their  ranks  have  come  his  foremost  servants 
the  ages  through  and  the  world  around.  These 
men  in  their  need  and  their  claim  arc  to  be  re- 
garded. It  is  to  them  an  almost  intuitive  truth 
that  a  Bible  of  any  considerable  worth  must  have 
a  divine  sanction.  They  instinctively  feel  that 
some  higher  authority  than  man  is  needed.  This 
book  furnishes  it  for  them.  It  would  take  another 
book  with  greater  miracles  clustering  about  a 
greater  Lord  whose  utterances  were  more  tender 
and  whose  promises  were  more  glorious — if  such  a 
book  there  could  be — to  convince  them  by  its 
testimony  that  this  book  is  not  distinctively  in- 
spired of  God.  They  feel  that  it  is  true.  They 
are  sure  of  its  trend.  Their  moral  intuitions  are 
roused  and  their  hearts  are  capable  of  a  reasoning 
on  such  a  theme  which  is  as  sound  as  any  logic  of 
the  head.  They  know  that  the  whole  trend  of 
their  best  feeling  and  the  whole  trend  of  the  book 
is  the  same.     The  key  fits  the  lock. 

No  argument  better  satisfies  any  man's  head  and 
heart  alike  than  that  of  trend.  Some  of  these 
men  may  be  too  impatient  of  discussion.  They 
may  need  to  be  assured  that  those  who  enter  on 
the  investigation  of  this  subject  of  inspiration,  do 
so  with  a  friendly  rather  than  an  unfriendly  pur- 
pose; that  their  own  moral  intuitions  are  not  to  be 
outraged.  These  believers  cannot  give  up  what 
they  know  with  the  deepest  moral  knowledge  of 
their  souls.  They  need  to  be  assured  that,  instead 
of  denying  or  even  setting  aside  for  the  time,  on 
the  plea  of  fairness,  these  moral  certainties,  we  are 

29' 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED   AS    A    TREND 

going  to  consider  candidly  these  facts  of  their  re- 
ligious experience.  They  need  to  know  that  we 
seek  also  a  logical  basis,  in  addition  to  the  experi- 
ential proof  on  which  they  rightly  insist ;  that  the 
method  in  which  we  are  to  prosecute  the  inquiry  is 
that  of  strict  induction  until  we  have  assembled 
the  facts  ;  that  one  class  of  these  facts  is  this  very 
experience.  We  are  to  examine  also  the  direct  and 
the  indirect  teaching  of  the  Scriptures  themselves 
on  this  subject.  The  legitimate  deductions  from 
all  this  mass  of  evidence  are  to  be  carefully 
drawn.  And  thus  we  are  to  gather  up  all  the  va- 
rious and  consenting  evidences  which  show  that 
we  have  not  followed  "  cunningly  devised  fables  " 
in  accepting  the  Scriptures  as  the  ''word  of  God." 
These  men  feel  none  too  strongly  the  importance 
of  this  matter,  while  all  scholarly  and  devout  men 
call  inspiration  ''the  burning  question  of  the 
hour." 

In  the  previous  section  there  was  set  forth,  to 
some  extent,  the  importance  of  the  subject.     And 

perhaps   the  difference  in  the 

^p^^^°^  ^i-         results  of  the  extreme  theories 

^  rp       J  of  inspiration  was  dwelt  upon 

sufficiently.     But  what  if  there 

is  another  side  ?     What  if  it  is  of  equal  importance 

to  look  fairly  upon  the  unifying  principle  which,  it 

may  be,  runs  through  all  these  diverse  theories  ? 

What  if  we  can  discover,  not  indeed  harmony  in 

them,  but  a  certain  unity  of  trend  ?     And  what  if 

this  principle  of  trend   not  only  is  found  in  the 

varying  theories  of  the  book,  but  is  also  a  feature 

30 


THE   SUBJECT    STATED 


of  the  Scriptures  themselves  ?  All  the  theories 
confess  to  the  fact  that  we  have  here  a  most  re- 
markable book  in  contents,  in  tone,  in  trend  of 
thought,  and  in  trend  of  fact  as  well.  The  the- 
ories run  for  a  certain  distance  in  the  same  general 
direction. 

It  may  be  freely  granted  that  their  unlikeness 
is  very  obvious.  But  certainly  their  similarity  in 
some  things  is  worthy  of  our  recognition.  What 
if  this  likeness  as  well  as  this  unlikeness  is  such 
because  the  subject  of  inspiration  is  one  far  too 
wide  to  be  spanned  by  any  single  theory  ?  What 
if  each  most  extreme  view  explains  some  things 
better  than  any  other  and  yet  in  turn  has  its  own 
defects .?  What  if  the  trend  of  all  the  theories  is 
like  the  trend  of  all  the  book  }  Trend  is  tendency. 
It  realizes  itself  in  seeking,  through  present  mani- 
festations, its  final  accomplishment.  It  is  that 
course  in  things  which  goes  onward  to  result,  that 
direction  in  things  which"  seeks  a  goal.  It  may  be 
so  strong  as  to  satisfy  us  completely  as  to  its  char- 
acter  and  its  ends.  There  is  a  descriptive  defini- 
tion  of  God  as  ''that  stream  of  tendency  that 
makes  for  righteousness."  In  like  manner  one 
might  describe  inspiration,  in  one  of  its  aspects, 
as  that  tendency  in  human  affairs  which  makes  for 
divine  revelation,  the  divinely  guided  record  of 
which  is  the  Bible.  And  we  are  to  recognize  this 
human  tendency  in  the  various  theories  of  inspira- 
tion, and  also  to  recognize  the  divine  tendency  in 
the  book  itself. 

There  are  those  who  admit  only  this  :  that  the 
highest    expression    of    the    religious    thought    of 

31 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

former  ages  is  to  be  found  in  this  book.  In  some 
very  general  sense  they  allow  that  it  is  a  record  of 
the  teachings  of  foremost  souls  enlightened  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.  They  say  that  the  book  shows 
great  religious  genius.  But  even  this  restricted 
view  carries  with  it  a  vast  deal  more  as  a  necessary 
deduction  than  those  who  admit  so  much  would 
willingly  allow.  But  what  this  admission  really 
involves  will  be  considered  farther  on. 

There  are  those  who  claim  the  verbal  inspiration 
of  the  book,  /.  e.,  the  inspiration  of  its  words. 
These  claimants  differ  widely  among  themselves ; 
some  holding  to  a  mechanical  dictation,  in  which 
a  man  is  merely  an  ''amanuensis  of  God,"  and 
some  insisting  that  the  verbal  guidance  only  pre- 
serves the  penman  from  error  in  expressing  his 
thought.  A  verbal  theory,  they  say,  need  not  be 
a  mechanical  theory. 

There  are  again  other  men  who  contend  only 
for  the  inspiration  of  the  thought  by  the  Spirit  of 
God.  And  the  inspiration  of  the  thought  does 
indeed  lift  us  to  a  broader  moral  atmosphere  than 
that  of  the  mere  word.  And  some  feel  that  if 
they  must  choose  between  the  two  theories,  the 
theory  of  the  inspired  thought  is  the  more  spiritual, 
the  more  logical,  the  more  reliable  for  us,  than  that 
of  a  merely  verbal  inspiration. 

Others  would  unite  the  two  theories.  They 
claim  that  if  the  inspired  thought  does  not  abso- 
lutely compel  an  inspired  expression,  it  clearly 
points  in  that  direction. 

Then  there  is  the  dynamical  theory  of  inspira- 
tion.    It    is    that    the   writers  of    Scripture  were 

32 


THE   SUBJECT   STATED 


suffered  to  fall  into  no  error  or  mistake  in  things 
affecting  moral  fact  or  religious  doctrine,  though 
they  took  their  own  way  of  recording  facts,  even 
when  some  of  the  facts,  not  especially  religious 
and  but  incidentally  named,  were  not  geograph- 
ically or  historically  exact.  For  religious  purposes 
they  are  absolutely  truthful. 

Again,  there  are  those  who  claim  that  the  series 
of  events  are  inspired — these  only.  The  teaching 
which  historians,  prophets,  evangelists,  and  apostles 
draw  from  these  inspired  events  has  little  or  no 
divine  guidance.  We  have  left  us  nothing  other 
than  that  which  very  shrewd  and  profoundly  re- 
ligious men  have  seen  in  them.  And  thus  each 
age  has  put  its  stamp  upon  the  inspired  events, 
seeing  them  in  its  own  atmosphere  and  limitations. 
So  that  an  event,  say  that  of  the  deluge,  has  one 
teaching  for  the  age  of  Moses,  as  it  looks  back  to 
it ;  another  teaching  for  the  age  of  Joel ;  and  a 
third  for  the  age  of  Jesus.  It  is  seen  by  the  eye  of 
Paul  and  by  that  of  Peter,  each  putting  into  it  his 
own  personality  and  imperfection.  Neither  the 
thought  nor  the  word  has  inspired  worth  ;  and  the 
narration  is  simply  a  water-mark  showing  the  moral 
or  the  literary  position  of  an  age  or  of  a  man. 

About  each  of  these  theories  and  others  which 
could  be  named,  some  things  may  be  said  : 

I.  It  is  obvious  that  each  of  them,  since  it  has 
clear  and  devout  thinkers  as  its  advocates,  may 
have  in  it  some  element  of  truth. 

II.  One  of  these  theories  may  explain  a  par- 
ticular phase  of  the  subject  more  satisfactorily 
than  any  other  to  some  careful  inquirer. 

c  33 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 


III.  That  seldom  is  any  one  theory  held  in 
absolute  consistency. 

Those,  for  instance,  who  hold  to  the  most  ex- 
treme form  of  verbal  inspiration,  even  when  they 
compare  man's  work  to  that  of  a  ''pen  in  the  hand 
of  divinity,"  do  not  hesitate  to  point  out  the  fact 
of  the  testimony  of  eye-witnesses  in  the  case  of 
Moses  when  describing  his  wilderness  journey,  and 
in  the  case  of  the  apostles  when  describing  the 
miracles  and  teachings  of  the  Lord.  So  too,  those 
who  hold  to  the  inspiration  of  the  events  as  a 
series  ask  us  to  notice  the  fact  that,  in  some  cir- 
cumstances, other  words  than  those  selected  in  the 
record  would  have  spoiled  the  relation  of  one 
member  of  the  series  to  the  rest.  To  us  it  would 
seem  that  the  words  need  to  be  as  carefully  chosen 
sometimes  as  the  events,  to  be  of  any  worth  in 
the  premises.  Thus  no  man  is  probably  quite 
consistent  in  his  special  theory.  He  extends  or 
contracts  it  in  given  cases.  In  using  his  theory 
he  transgresses  it  by  a  happy  inconsistency. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  man  who  insists  that  the 
writers  are  to  be  regarded  chiefly  as  splendid  speci- 
mens of  lofty  human  genius.  Now  and  then  these 
biblical  writers  seem  to  him  to  snatch  a  glance  be- 
yond that  limitation.  Now  and  then  they  reach  a 
plane  and  utter  a  word  that  has  the  tone  of  the 
superhuman.  The  seer  sees.  The  hearer  hears 
words  beyond  those  which  are  mortal.  The  theory 
is  forgotten  as  the  words  inspire.  The  man  has 
allowed,  in  a  moment  of  vision,  what  he  had  been 
loth  to  admit  when  the  vital  eye  had  become 
dimmed.     Men  are  sometimes  more  believing  than 

34 


THE    SUBJECT   STATED 


their  unbelief.  The  natural  faculty  for  believing 
asserts  its  potency.  And  here  and  there  a  word, 
a  truth,  or  a  series  of  events,  is  more  than  human 
on  the  biblical  page. 

The  frequent  and  happy  inconsistencies  of  the 
advocates  of  any  one  special  theory  should  teach 
us  that  it  will  be  best  to  hold  any  theory  less  in  a 
hard  and  fast  way  and  more  in  a  way  that  sees  in 
each  and  all  a  trend.  It  is  not  necessary  to  find 
any  common  ground  of  agreement  on  definite 
points,  but  rather  to  see  if  each  does  not  contain 
a  truth  which  the  others  fail  to  emphasize,  and  to 
note  that  in  them  all  there  is  a  certain  trend  of 
thought. 

IV.  It  is  evident  also  that  investigators  on  this 
field  of  inquiry  should  be  careful  not  to  under- 
value the  results  others  have  reached.  No  man 
serves  the  truth  best  by  showing  that  all  other 
men  are  mistaken.  Truths  are  friendly.  It  is  not 
worth  while  to  discredit  all  others  to  get  a  hearing 
for  one's  self.  The  poorest  kinds  of  arguments  on 
some  great  themes  are  those  which  work  toward 
mutual  destructiveness.  In  the  very  varieties  of 
theories  one  may  find  not  indeed  a  unity  of  result, 
but  of  intention,  of  tendency,  of  outlook.  They 
may  be  approximations.  One  need  not  disparage 
the  lesser  light  another  man  has  brought,  nor  the 
different  way  by  which  that  other  man  approaches 
the  subject  and  reaches  his  end.  The  argument 
most  convincing  to  another  man  may  be  the  least 
satisfactory  to  you  who  hold  the  same  truth  with 
him.  But  you  do  not  need  to  bring  your  superior 
way  into  right  angles  with  his.      Let  it  be  parallel. 

35 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

Yours  goes  farther,  as  you  think.  But  do  not  seek 
at  any  point  on  these  highest  themes  to  antagonize 
his  view.  Members  of  the  same  army  should  not 
draw  swords  on  each  other.  We  cannot  afford  in 
getting  at  the  intellectual  form  of  this  singularly 
broad  subject  to  cultivate  antagonisms.  The  truth 
may  be,  and  probably  is,  far  broader  than  any  or  all 
of  our  theories  of  it.  Every  man  working  amid  the 
materials  of  this  problem  will  help  us,  if  it  shall  be 
found  presently  that  the  utmost  possible  for  us  to 
do  is  to  establish  the  fact  of  trend  and  to  discover 
which  way  it  leads. 

This  will  not  be  to  attempt  the  establishment  of 
any  new  theory  of  inspiration,  but  we  may  be  able 
to  show  that  each  theory  may  have  something  that 
■^  the  other  lacks.  Each  may  cast  a  sidelight  on  the 
subject.  He  need  not  be  wholly  right  who  by 
some  single  view  of  the  theme  has  opened  a  new 
line  of  thinking.  The  best  views  are  approxima- 
tions. And  he  would  be  singularly  wanting  in 
knowledge  of  the  theme  of  inspiration  who  thinks 
that  the  last  word  has  been  spoken.  Let  us  wel- 
come all  that  any  candid,  prayerful,  scholarly  man 
has  to  say.  He  can  hardly  discuss  the  theme  at 
all  without  contributing,  incidentally  at  least,  some- 
thing that  may  be  worth  our  notice.  There  may 
be  great  error  in  his  view  as  a  whole,  but  some 
subordinate  line  of  remark  may  be  of  especial  value. 
Considered  as  the  sole  theory  of  inspiration  his 
view  may  be  utterly  untenable.  But  is  it  not  pos- 
sible that  a  theory  while  failing  to  cover  all  the 
ground  may  be  a  contribution  as  showing  a  trend  } 
What  if  all  our  theories  only  show  which  way  the 

36 


THE   SUBJECT   STATED 


truth  lies  ?  What  if  they  are  indications,  prophecies, 
approaches  ?  All  these  beginnings  show  that  there 
is  somewhere  a  goal.  They  show  a  belief  in  some- 
thing higher  than  ordinary  human  genius  in  cer- 
tain writings.  Perhaps  the  general  direction  of  all 
these  processes,  starting  as  they  do  from  various 
sides  of  the  subject,  will  show  by  their  variety  not 
only  the  fact  of  trend,  but  that  trend  is  the  greatest 
fact  of  all. 

One  of  our  foremost  teachers  in  physics  at  the 
close  of  his  series  of  lectures  on  '*  gravitation,"  was 
asked  by  a  student  whom  he  had  admitted  to  inti- 
macy, "  Do  you  think,  professor,  that  your  argu- 
ments have  proved  gravitation  ?  "  "  Proved  it  ? 
No,"  was  the  instant  answer.  "  We  prove  none 
of  these  things.  We  only  show  which  way  things 
tend.  The  facts  look  that  way."  Equally  ignorant 
are  we  about  ''sound,"  about  ''electricity,"  and 
"chemical  affinity."  Our  theories  are  at  best  only 
tentative.  They  do  as  working  theories.  We  can 
see  the  general  trend  of  scientific  thought.  We 
are  on  the  right  track ;  but  we  have  not  come  to 
the  end.  In  biology  it  is  the  same.  See  how 
many  have  tried  to  define  "life."  No  two  of  the 
great  masters  agree  in  their  theory  of  it.  Yet  all 
know  what  it  is  experimentally.  We  all  know  that 
life  is  the  one  thing  of  which  death  is  the  opposite. 
We  know  it  as  the  mysterious  something  that  tends 
to  make  an  organism  do  what  it  is  plainly  intended 
to  do.  If  we  cannot  define,  we  can  describe  ;  and 
all  we  do  is  to  describe  a  direction,  a  tendency  in 
things. 

In  the  great  discussion  concerning  the  existence 

37 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


of  God  some  good  thinkers  are  coming  to  give 
credit  to  all  the  different  arguments  as  having  a 
certain  worth.  The  argument  from  design  shows 
a  great  Designer.  But  need  he  be  the  Infinite  and 
Eternal  God  ?  The  ontological  argument  shows  a 
Creator.  But  may  he  not  be  a  lesser  being  than 
the  Almighty  One  ?  The  argument  from  the  power 
displayed,  in  the  world  shows  potency  beyond  all 
our  conception.  But  was  there  need  of  an  abso- 
lutely Almighty  Being  to  make  this  wondrous 
frame  of  things .?  How  do  we  know  but  that  less 
than  Infinite  Wisdom  could  have  contrived  them 
all  ?  These  arguments  do  not  any  one  of  them 
alone  reach  an  absolute  demonstration. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  argument  that  we  have 
a  natural,  necessary,  universal  conviction  that  there 
is  a  God.  It  is  the  same  with  the  argument  that 
there  is  a  preparation  in  the  mind  for  receiving  the 
idea  of  a  Supreme  Being.  Not  one  of  these  argu- 
ments is  destitute  of  worth.  Each  one  of  them 
has  its  advocates  who  must  take  care  not  to  dis- 
parage the  arguments  of  other  thinkers.  And  so 
it  is  coming  about  that  a  large  class  of  minds — 
and  they  not  of  inferior  caliber — look  on  all  these 
theories  chiefly  as  exhibiting  a  tendency  which  is 
unmistakable.  It  is  not  what  the  arguments  have 
in  common  that  makes  them  of  worth,  but  it  is  their 
very  difference  which  makes  this  stream  of  tendency 
so  evidential.  As  we  dwell  upon  it,  this  trend  be- 
comes the  argument  of  arguments.  So  satisfying 
is  ic  that  we  may  well  inquire  whether  it  was  not 
intended  that  various  methods  of  approaching  the 
truth  on  this  matter  should  be  used  by  different 

38 


THE   SUBJECT    STATED 


minds,  and  thus  each  of  them  contribute  toward 
establishing  a  form  of  argument  stronger  than  any 
one  or  all  of  them.  So  that  the  belief  in  God  be- 
comes satisfactory  to  a  degree  impossible  in  any 
other  way. 

Are  there  any  who,  because  unused  to  this  line 
of  thinking,  imagine  that  we  surrender  arguments 
either  on  the  subject  of  divinity  or  of  divine  in- 
spiration for  a  "  mere  trend  "  ?  But  let  us  remem- 
ber that  a  trend  may  be  of  the  very  strongest  kind. 
It  may  be  the  most  positive  evidence  of  a  fact. 
Take  that  tendency  called  the  ''magnetic  trend." 
All  over  the  surface  of  the  world,  as  has  been  said, 
sweep  the  lines  of  magnetic  force.  They  run  up 
toward  the  Pole  of  the  earth.  These  lines  are  the 
basis  of  two  of  the  greatest  sciences  we  have.  By 
them  we  measure  the  world  and  the  very  skies. 
We  venture,  because  of  this  trend,  across  oceans 
and  deserts  otherwise  impassable.  We  measure 
the  starry  heavens  by  this  same  trend.  These 
lines  are  all  run  toward  a  Pole  that  no  man  has 
yet  seen,  but  which  must  exist.  Trend  is  the 
strongest  possible  proof  of  it.  No  man  in  his 
senses  wants  any  other  proof. 

It  is  the  same  with  reference  to  inspiration.  He 
who  ordained  that  trend  should  be  the  best  proof 
of  himself  has  ordained  that  it  should  be  the  best 
proof  of  his  divine  inspiration  of  the  Bible.  What 
if  the  nature  of  this  divine  inspiration  is  such  that 
when  his  Spirit  comes  to  man's  spirit  the  law  of 
the  manifestation  is  similar  ?  And  thus  the  trend 
in  our  own  minds  may  be  but  the  reflection  of  that 
in  the  Divine  mind  as  shown  us  in  the  Divine  word. 

39 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

And  SO  Divine  inspiration  may  be  proved  to  us 
in  the  same  way  as  Divine  existence.  The  point 
to  which  our  human  inquiries  lead  may  be  that  to- 
ward which  God's  word  also  conducts  us.  Ten- 
dency is  the  great  thing  to  be  noted,  alike  in  the 
Bible  itself  and  in  our  study  of  its  pervasive 
thought.  This  movement  toward  a  definite  point 
is  seen  in  the  fact  of  its  varied  methods  of  utter- 
ance. Just  here  there  is  a  line  of  evidence  toward 
which  many  students  not  quite  satisfied  with  any 
one  theory  of  inspiration  are  now  looking.  This 
living  purpose,  this  determinative  process,  this  evi- 
dent seeking  for  the  goal,  this  active  concernment, 
this  whole  strong  trend  of  the  Bible — these  are 
the  facts  more  satisfactory  to  many  persons  than 
any  other  proof  that  the  book  is  from  God. 

Notwithstanding  the  difficulty  of  exact  logical 
definition,  the  interest  felt  in  this  matter  of  inspi- 
ration shows  the  immense  importance  attached  to 
the  subject.  Elsewhere  the  subjects  that  deeply 
interest  students  are  incapable  of  any  other  defi- 
nition than  the  descriptive  one  of  trend.  In  biology, 
no  definition  of  life  satisfies  any  man  save  him  who 
proposes  it.  But  the  thing  itself  is  none  the  less 
real  because,  instead  of  definition,  we  must  con- 
tent ourselves  in  the  end  with  only  a  description. 
Our  definition  of  God  is  always  lacking  and  must 
be  so.  Even  in  nature,  we  apprehend  many  a 
thing  we  cannot  comprehend.  That  a  thing  is, 
may  be  certain  to  us,  when  we  do  not  understand 
how  it  is.  And  all  the  more  important  facts  in 
nature,  in  philosophy,  and  in  religion,  are  among 
these  things  that  we  can  better  describe  than  de- 

40 


THE    SUBJECT    STATED 


fine.  Such  is  the  case  with  this  subject  of  Divine 
inspiration,  the  importance  of  which  can  hardly  be 
overestimated.  It  is  one  of  the  ''  burning  ques- 
tions "  of  the  age.  From  every  side  we  welcome 
all  truth  upon  it.  Every  line  of  investigation 
which  promises  to  give  us  any  help  is  gladly  em- 
ployed and  all  results  carefully  accepted. 

It  will  be,  then,  our  pleasant  task  to  look  closely, 
even  if  briefly,  at  some  of  the  chief  methods  open 
to  us  in  examining  this  whole  subject.  Perhaps 
we  shall  find  everywhere,  amid  various  ways  of  in- 
vestigation, an  increasing  proof  of  trend. 


41 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 

The  inductive  method  of  investigating  any  sub- 
ject starts  with  the  attempt  to  ascertain  the  facts. 

It   asks,   not  what  we   should 

Section  I.  ^j^-j^i^  ^Yiey  would  be,  but  what 

Our  Natural       ^.       ^^^^      j^  proposes  no  the- 

Intuitions  -^      T^        .1-         r    4- 

ory.       It    gathers    tacts    as   so 

much  material  on  which  subsequently  we  may 
work.^  It  proposes  to  see  these  facts  as  nearly  as 
possible  in  the  dry  light  of  a  scientific  method.  It 
is  true  that  a  human  eye  must  see  these  facts,  and 
every  observer  has  that  which  astronomers  in  their 
observations  are  obliged  to  take  into  account,  viz., 
the  "personal  equation."  Every  man's  eye  has  its 
peculiarity,  for  which  in  each  case  due  allowance 
must  be  made.  And  there  is  a  wide  difference  in 
the  number  of  facts  which  different  minds  deem  suf- 
ficient to  constitute  a  basis  that  will  warrant  a  con- 

1 "  Induction,"  says  Whately,  "is  sometimes  employed  to 
designate  the  process  of  investigation  and  of  collecting  facts,  and 
sometimes  the  deducing  of  an  inference  from  them."  In  this 
part  of  the  discussion,  we  are  to  investigate  the  facts  of  our 
human  nature  which  show  at  once  our  need  and  our  capacity  to 
receive  an  inspired  revelation  ;  and  in  a  subsequent  section  we 
seek  to  ascertain  the  facts  as  found  in  our  *'  Written  Bible."  Cer- 
tain inferences  may  be  drawn  in  the  processes  of  investigation. 
But  the  "Warranted  Deductions"  are  given  a  separate  chapter. 
"Scientific  induction  is  a  constant  interchange  of  induction  and 
deduction."     Definition  in  "  Standard  Dictionary." 

42 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


elusion.     There  is  the  discount  always  to  be  made 
for  the  judgment  of  different  men  as  to  the  import- 
ance to  be  allowed  to  a  given  fact ;  and  there  is  also 
the  danger  that  unimportant  facts  will  not  be  ex- 
cluded and  pertinent  facts  will  not  be  given  due 
weight.     The  method  has  its  obvious  limitations 
and  disadvantages,  even  when  applied  to  physical 
science.     But  when  we  come  to  the  moral  realm  of 
things,  the  limitations  and  the  dangers  multiply. 
Prejudice  and  passion,  partial  intellectual  training 
and  imperfect  moral  judgment  cannot  but  influence 
men.     It  is  often,  for  instance,  a  difficult  thing  to 
decide  whether  a  human  mind  as  shown  by  a  given 
book  exhibits  an  ability  amounting  to  genius.    And 
how  much  greater  is  the  difficulty  arising  from  a 
man's  own  peculiarity,  whether  of  temperament  or 
of  training,  of  deciding  in  an  absolutely  scientific 
way,  by  induction  alone,  whether  the  book  we  call 
the    Bible    exhibits    the    Divine    mind    working 
through  the  human  genius  in  such  a  way  and  to 
such  a  degree  as  to  warrant  us  in  calling  the  book 
a  Divine  inspiration.     The  facts  will  have  different 
weight  with  different  minds,   and  with  the  same 
mind  at  different  times.     They  will  be  differently 
marshaled  and  sorted.      One  mind  will  estimate 
them  by  number,  another  by  quality.     There  are 
closely  built   minds,    and    there   are  loosely  knit 
minds ;    judicial    minds    and     minds     discursive. 
Above  all,  there  are  men  who  are  nimble  and  men 
who  are  slow  in  their   moral  methods  and  judg- 
ments ;  men  who  are  unpractised  gunners  in  moral 
warfare ;  and  other  men  whose  accuracy  and  pre- 
cision show  the  result  of  careful  training  as  they 

43 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

have  used  themselves  in  moral  warfare  amid  the 
conflict  of  great  principles. 

These  considerations  do  not  tend  toward  the  un- 
fortunate conclusion  that  our  human  knowledge  is 
unreliable.  They  show  that  one  particular  way  of 
arriving  at  moral  results  may  need  to  be  compared 
and  corrected  by  other  methods  of  investigation  ; 
just  as  the  eye  sometimes  needs  to  be  corrected  by 
the  ear,  and  the  sense  of  smell  by  that  of  touch. 
The  inductive  method  of  inquiry  is  one,  and  is 
only  one,  of  the  ways  of  studying  the  subject  be- 
fore us  ;  a  way  with  its  own  limitations  and  weak- 
nesses.^ But  it  has  also  its  value  and  its  potency 
among  the  several  ways  of  ascertaining  the  truth. 
Let  us  use  it  as  best  we  may  in  this  part  of  our 
discussion  on  the  question  of  inspiration. 

It  is  a  fact  that  Christianity  exists  as  a  religion 
in  the  world.  It  is  likewise  a  fact  that,  for  us,  in 
these  later  centuries,  this  Christian  religion  stands 
closely  connected  with  the  existence  of  a  book 
popularly  called  the  New  Testament.  Says  Bruce, 
"If  the  Gospels  were  to  be  lost,  or  all  faith  in 
their  truth  to  perish,  Christianity  as  a  distinctive 
type  of  religion  would  perish."  It  is  clear  that  for 
those  accepting  this  book  as  an  authority — an 
authority  in  the  same  sense  as  we  accept  certain 
well-known  histories  as  authorities — there  is  found 
a  secure  basis  on  which  we  can  begin  in  our 
inquiries  on  inspiration.  And  we  might  ask  what 
the  book  says,  directly,  of  its  own  inspiration,  and 


1  <( 


•  Induction  can  ordinarily  only  give  us  no  more  tlian  probable 
conclusions,  because  we  can  never  be  sure  that  we  have  collated 
all  instances."     Definition  in  "Standard  Dictionary." 

44 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


what  it  assumes  in  its  utterances.  We  might  ask 
what  its  tone,  its  manner,  and  its  bearing  are.  We 
might  ask  what  such  facts  recorded  in  such  a 
fashion  clearly  involve.  We  could  obtain  a  good 
degree  of  certainty  on  this  question  by  seeing 
what  play  is  given  to  the  human  genius  of  the 
writers  ;  and  we  could  also  ask  whether  there  is 
not  sometimes  manifested  over  and  above  this  a 
conspicuous  element  which  indicates  a  higher  hand 
than  that  of  man.  We  might  not  yet  be  ready  to 
give  any  exhaustive  definition  of  inspiration  ;  for 
the  inductive  method  expressly  waits  for  the  ut- 
most possible  gathering  of  material  before  it  gives 
actual  statements  of  the  law  that  governs  all  the 
facts.  But  from  such  an  acknowledged  basis,  it 
would  be  possible  and  even  necessary  to  recognize 
a  degree  of  divine  guidance  and  endorsement. 
We  may  own  facts  when  a  full  theory  of  them  is 
not  yet  warranted.  We  may  mark  the  fact  of  a 
trend  even  when  we  do  not  follow  it  to  a  conclu- 
sion. The  facts  may  warrant  us  in  looking  to  the 
east  for  the  sun,  even  though  the  horizon  is  not 
yet  flecked  with  the  colors  that  show  distinctly  its 
rising  beams. 

But  there  are  those  who  do  not  allow  us  this 
basis.  They  want  to  go  farther  back  for  the  facts. 
Very  well.  Then  we  retreat  one  step,  and  we 
get  back  to  the  religion  out  of  which  Christianity, 
as  all  admit,  historically  sprang.  Judaism  is  cer- 
tainly a  historic  religion.  It  exists  ;  and  it  existed 
before  Christianity.  The  main  facts  of  Jewish 
history  are  sure.  Such  a  nation  as  the  Hebrews 
certainly  appeared   on  the  earth  and  did  a  definite 

45 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

work,  and  disseminated  a  definite  set  of  ideas 
among  the  nations.  It  filled  a  distinct  place,  as  it 
occupied  for  centuries  a  land  central  to  all  the 
ancient  civilizations.  It  connected  itself,  histori- 
cally, in  one  direction  with  *'the  youthful  world's 
gray  fathers,"  who  were  its  boast  and  its  model. 
It  had  a  lawgiver  who  gave  a  series  of  legal  insti- 
tutes that  are  the  basis  of  the  common  law  of  the 
foremost  centuries.  The  facts  of  the  existence  of 
such  a  nation  and  its  mission,  both  legal  and  relig- 
ious, and  of  its  peculiar  influence  on  the  world, 
are  as  sure  as  the  existence  of  the  sun  in  the 
heavens.  And  further:  just  as  Christianity  is  ab- 
solutely connected  for  us  with  a  certain  book 
called  the  New  Testament,  so  Judaism  is  connected 
for  us  unalterably  with  the  facts  of  a  book  called 
the  Old  Testament.  The  two  books  being  other 
than  they  are,  the  two  religions  were  other  than 
they  are.  These  are  basal  facts.  As  each  book 
stands  connected  with  each  religion,  so  the  two 
books  and  the  two  religions  stand  connected  with 
each  other.  There  is  therefore  a  four-fold  basis 
which  ought  to  be  a  satisfactory  warrant.  It  is 
such  for  a  vast  number  of  inductive  thinkers. 
And  at  another  point  in  this  discussion  this  basis 
is  to  be  legitimately  used. 

But  there  are  those  who  would  go  back  farther 
yet.  Very  well ;  we  will  do  it.  Only  one  step 
farther  is  possible.  We  go  back  to  those  ''  primi- 
tive beliefs,"  those  ''original  intuitions,"  those 
''warranted  assumptions,"  which  some  practised 
thinkers  claim  to  be  basal  to  any  thought  whatso- 
ever,  on  both    intellectual   and   moral    questions. 

46 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


They  are  just  what  the  "  axioms  "  are  in  geometry, 
or  the  multiplication  table  is  in  arithmetic.  Axioms 
in  geometry  are  formalized  natural  beliefs  about 
space  and  number  and  quantity.  Clearly  stated 
and  clearly  seen,  they  carry  their  own  conviction. 
They  cannot  be  otherwise  than  they  are.  They 
are  found,  on  working  upon  them,  to  be  trust- 
worthy. They  become  verified  when  once  they 
are  assumed.  In  exactly  the  same  way  when  we 
turn  to  the  intellectual  and  moral  realm  of  things 
we  have  "primitive  convictions."  These  are  "nat- 
ural and  necessary  truths."  By  the  five  senses  we 
get,  in  some  unexplained  way,  to  the  conviction  of 
an  external  world  in  which  the  "primitive  truths" 
of  space  and  number  and  quantity  are  actual 
existences.  Exactly  so,  by  consciousness — the 
contents  of  the  mind  looked  in  upon  by  itself — we 
get  at  those  moral  and  intellectual  "intuitions," 
those  "original  convictions,"  those  "primary 
truths,"  which  are  involved  in  all  the  moral  and 
intellectual  workings  of  the  human  mind  and  soul. 
For  the  soul  does  its  work  in  a  realm  of  things  as 
real  as  is  the  material.  "  Whatever,"  says  Mill, 
"  is  known  to  us  by  consciousness  is  known  beyond 
the  possibility  of  question."  And  of  these  "axioms" 
in  the  moral  realm  we  are  as  absolutely  certain  as 
of  the  axioms  in  geometry.  If  indeed  there  were 
any  difference  in  the  two  classes  of  certainties, 
the  certainty  in  the  sphere  of  mind  would  be  more 
abundantly  proved.  For  we  are  more  sure  of  the 
mind  that  knows  than  of  the  thing  known  to  the 
mind  through  the  senses.  And  while  we  may  have 
been  occasionally  deceived  about   the   things  we 

47 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 


thought  we  saw  or  heard,  yet  as  to  our  thinking 
about  them,  we  were  not  deceived.  We  know 
that  we  thought  about  the  things. 

These  mental  and  moral  facts  are  the  most 
thoroughly  proven  facts  we  know.  To  doubt  them 
is  to  doubt  thought  itself.  These  "■  axiomatic 
truths "  are  natural,  necessary,  and  universal,  as 
related  to  the  realm  of  physical  things.  Once  let 
the  human  mind  clearly  see  them  and  they  are 
self-evident.  In  like  manner,  let  there  be  a  dis- 
tinct and  unobstructed  view  of  these  "axiomatic 
moral  convictions,"  these  "primary  principles  of 
moral  judgment,"  and  they  justify  themselves. 
For  they  have  the  same  three  marks  by  which  we 
test  such  truths,  viz.,  the  marks  of  naturalness,  of 
necessity,  and  of  universality, 

What  are  these  moral  intuitions }  So  far  as 
they  bear  upon  the  matter  now  under  discussion, 
they  are  these  : 

I.  The  belief  in  self  :  i.  e.,  the  belief  in  one's  self 
as  having  one's  own  body  and  one's  own  mind. 
Our  body  is  separated  from  the  mass  of  matter 
and  our  souls  from  the  mass  of  soul.  We  are  our- 
selves. 

II.  There  is  a  belief  in  substance  outside  of  our 
own  bodies,  and  in  mind  outside  of  our  own  minds. 
Philosophy  has  attempted  to  explain  how  we  get 
at  our  belief  in  an  external  world,  whether  of 
matter  or  mind.  The  various  theories  are  usually 
held  by  careful  students  as  not  perhaps  so  defective 
in  kind  as  in  measure.  The  ladder  ascends  in  the 
right  direction,  but  it  is  too  short.  The  last  rung 
of  it  is  just  beyond  our  ken.     The  final  step  to- 

4.8 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


ward  a  conclusion  is  not  the  logical  one  of  the 
reason,  but  it  is  the  logical  one  of  the  intuition. 
We  are  so  made  as  to  assume  the  existence  of  the 
outside  world.  It  is  the  conviction  less  of  the 
reason  and  more  of  the  intuition.  For  intuitions 
are  axiomatic  to  reason  and  they  make  reasoning 
possible.  We  have  to  believe  in  matter  outside  of 
our  body,  and  also  in  reasoning  minds  outside  of 
our  mind.  Reasoning  involves  a  standard  with 
which  comparison  is  made  in  some  other  mind 
than  our  own.  We  assume  other  thinking  than 
that  of  "the  me  within  us." 

III.  There  is  an  intuitional  belief  in  "the  true 
and  the  false."  We  are  ushered  into  a  scheme  of 
things  in  which  these  distinctions  exist.  We  do 
not  make  them  but  find  them  here  when  we  come. 
We  assume  them  as  existing  in  our  own  and  in 
other  minds  as  a  law  of  judgment  to  be  by  us  ap- 
plied ;  and  as  having  also  a  real  existence  outside 
of  our  minds.  "  The  true  "  is  what  agrees  with 
a  rule  or  standard  truth  more  or  less  clearly  per- 
ceived. "The  false"  is  also. as  real  as  is  the  true; 
and  it  is  that  which  disagrees  with  the  standard. 
Ten  thousand  times  men  have  been  deceived  as  to 
what  particular  things  are  true  or  false.  But  the 
things  were  judged  to  be  true  or  false  at  the  time; 
and  when  the  mistake  was  discerned,  the  label  was 
simply  changed  to  the  other  object.  The  new 
judgment  was  on  a  new  statement  of  the  facts  ; 
so  that  it  was  still  an  adjudgment  about  "the  true 
and  the  false."  The  mind  believes  that  the  true 
is  knowable,  and  persists  in  seeking  it  notwith- 
standing all  former  mistakes.  It  insists  that  the 
D  49 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


trouble  was  not  in  its  decision,  but  in  the  mistaken 
presentation  of  the  alleged  facts  at  the  bar  of  the 
mind.  The  court  decides  on  the  evidence  pro- 
duced. If  the  evidence  is  false  or  even  partial, 
the  verdict  in  the  case  is  as  defective  as  is  the 
evidence.  The  reality  of  the  "true  and  the  false" 
as  a  distinction  to  be  made  is  not  invalidated  by 
any  mistake  of  the  witnesses  on  the  stand.  In 
any  case  there  is  a  decision,  and  this  means  that 
the  law  exists  and  is  acted  upon  by  the  judge. 

IV.  There  is  an  intuitive  belief  in  *'the  right 
and  the  wrong."  There  is  the  assumption  ojf  a 
law,  agreement  with  which  is  the  right  and  dis- 
agreement with  which  is  the  wrong.  This  *'law" 
or  "standard"  or  "principle  according  to  which 
we  instinctively  judge,"  we  do  not  make.  Our 
consciences  simply  recognize  it  as  existing.  A 
good  many  things  tend  toward  hindering  the  ac- 
tion of  the  conscience,  exactly  as  in  the  case  of 
the  reason.  But,  getting  down  into  the  soul  of 
man,  we  find  conscience  always  there.  However 
deflected,  restrained,  or  limited,  the  fact  that  we 
are  susceptible  of  being  thus  influenced,  so  far 
from  suggesting  doubt,  confirms  belief  in  it  as 
an  original  principle,  as  a  natural  endowment. 
Men  will  differ  about  what  things  are  right,  as 
they  do  about  what  things  are  reasonable.  All 
that  we  need  now  to  notice  is  that  they  make  the 
distinction,  even  when  they  do  it  erroneously.  A 
man's  conscience  may  have  been  trained  to  act 
narrowly  and  on  only  a  very  few  things.  There 
is  said  to  be  a  tribe  of  Laplanders  who  will  steal 
without  compunction,  except  when  a  bit  of  rein- 

50 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


deer  skin  is  thrown  over  an  object.  Then,  and  on 
that  thing,  conscience  binds  them.  If  it  binds 
them  on  one  thing,  that  fact  shows  conscience  as 
existing.  And  such  a  conscience,  making  its  dis- 
tinction of  ''the  right  and  the  wrong"  in  one 
thing,  shows  what  it  would  do  if  allowed  larger 
range  and  if  exercised  about  other  things.  The 
fact  that  the  ''sense  of  the  right  and  the  wrong" 
is  anywhere  employed  is  all  that  is  needed  here 
and  now  in  this  discussion. 

V.  Equally  instinctive  is  the  idea  of  a  God  who 
is  the  standard  of  the  true  and  the  standard  of  the 
right.  There  are  reasons  of  prodigious  strength 
that  would  hinder  a  sinful  race  from  believing  in  a 
holy  and  just  God.  But  the  conviction  holds.  It 
cannot,  for  any  considerable  number  of  men,  be 
beaten  down.  It  has  been  strangely  perverted. 
Gods  many  and  lords  many  have  been  invented 
to  take  the  place  of  the  original  monotheistic  con- 
viction. But  all  the  old  nations  had  more  or  less 
distinctly  the  idea  of  the  one  God.  Arguments 
from  causation,  arguments  from  design,  arguments 
from  moral  law  and  moral  results,  all  go  a  certain 
way  toward  the  proof,  or  rather  toward  dissipating 
the  counter  arguments  which  human  guilt,  in  its 
frantic  desire  to  deny  him,  have  devised.  Argu- 
ment meets  objection.  But  the  argument  needs 
also  the  help  of  the  "natural  instinct,"  of  the  "in- 
ward conviction,"  of  "the  moral  persuasion,"  of 
the  "original  handwriting  of  God  testifying  to 
himself."  The  attempt  to  prove  by  mere  argu- 
ment the  bare  existence  of  God  may  fail.  So  too 
may  fail  the  effort  to  find  the  merely  characterless 

51 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


existence  of  God  as  an  original  instinct  of  man. 
The  instinct  is  a  conviction  as  to  a  moral  God, 
who  has  moral  qualities  as  well  as  mere  existence. 
He  is  a  fact,  not  only  in  the  region  of  mind,  but 
in  that  of  soul  as  well.  He  dwells  not  only  in  the 
sphere  of  thought  and  will,  but  in  the  realm  of 
the  moral  world.  His  existence  is  not  to  be  con- 
ceived of  as  apart  from  the  sphere  of  the  right  and 
wrong.  It  is  a  holy  God  whom  good  men  crave 
and  evil  men  fear,  and  all  men  in  the  clearest  mo- 
ments of  moral  insight  must  own. 

VI.  The  idea  of  immortality  is  also  a  natural 
belief.  Arguments  of  vast  weight  have  been  ad- 
vanced. They  almost  reach  the  goal  of  proof. 
They  are  sufficiently  strong  to  warrant  men  in 
acting  upon  them.  But  after  all  the  innate  con- 
viction is  the  one  evoked  by  these  arguments. 
We  are  prepared  to  believe  in  immortality.  Death 
seems  to  interrupt  life,  but  the  superficial  argu- 
ment that  "death  ends  all"  satisfies  only  those 
who  want  it  true  that  they  do  not  live  forever. 
The  instinctive  feeling  remains.  In  his  book 
"  Scarabs,"  Dr.  Myer,  the  Egyptologist,  tells  us 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  was 
an  "  advanced  instinct  of  humanity."     He  says  : 

It  is  a  curious  phase  of  archaic  Egyptian  thought,  that 
the  farther  we  go  back  in  our  investigations  of  the  origins 
of  its  rehgious  ideas,  the  more  ideal  and  elevated  they  ap- 
pear as  to  the  spiritual  power  of  the  unseen  world.  Idol- 
atry made  its  greatest  advance  subsequent  to  the  epoch  of 
the  Ancient  Empire,  and  progressed  until  it  finally  merged 
itself  into  the  animalism  of  the  new  empire  and  the  gross 
paganism  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 

52 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


The  intuition  is  not  only  incited  to  act  by  the 
rational  nature,  but  by  other  parallel  intuitions. 
We  ourselves  know  ourselves  to  be  spiritual  in  the 
core  of  our  being.  The  moral  conviction  of  a 
moral  God  with  whom  we  have  to  do,  is  closely 
allied  to  this  natural  belief  in  immortality.  We 
carry  with  us  when  we  die  our  moral  personality. 
And  this  parallel  conviction  is  corroborative  of 
immortality. 

There  are  beginnings  of  moral  action  engender- 
ing such  spontaneous  hopes,  such  vital  and  neces- 
sary expectations  of  future  blessing,  that  they 
would  need  some  express  revelation  from  heaven 
to  forbid  them  were  they  untrue.  The  leading  is 
not  misleading.  Intellectual  powers,  going  on 
toward  their  perfected  working,  moral  processes, 
begun  in  each  to-day  and  demanding  a  to-morrow 
for  their  completion,  are  not  to  be  blasted  by  the 
incident  of  death  to  the  body — the  body  which  has 
survived  unharmed  greater  changes  than  death 
itself.  These  convictions  give  force  to  reasoning, 
since  the  healthful  reason  loves  to  reach  in  another 
way,  as  nearly  as  possible,  the  convictions  held  by 
the  soul  as  its  original  endowment.  The  mind 
declares  concerning  itself  that  it  possesses  primary 
thoughts  that  are  undying.  Other  things  may  be 
transient.  These  truths  once  seen,  these  original 
thoughts  once  beginning  to  give  their  peculiar 
thrill  to  the  human  soul,  demand,  expect,  and 
prophesy,  an  immortality  in  which  their  eternal 
expansiveness  shall  find  due  scope. 

VII.  The  last  of  these  primary  convictions  need- 
ing to  be  named  for  this  discussion  is  that  of  a 

53 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


final  judgment.  Whether  it  is  a  judgment  ''day" 
or  a  judgment  ''period"  no  intuition  can  tell  us. 
There  is  no  doubt  of  a  primitive  feeling  of  accounta- 
bility to  God.  It  has  been,  in  its  development, 
sadly  distorted.  The  conviction  has  been  used  to 
awaken  a  craven  rather  than  a  holy  fear.  The 
abuse  of  the  feeling  of  accountability  has  made 
men  rebel  against  the  idea,  and  fortify  their  rebel- 
lion with  whatsoever  of  reasoning  they  could  com- 
mand. And  so  reasons  for  and  against  this  cul- 
minating accountability  have  been  given.  The 
order  of  all  orderly  things,  and  equally  the  disorder 
and  confusion  of  the  moral  world  about  us,  have 
been  used  to  show  that  a  judgment  is  needed. 
There  is  a  conviction  that  things  will  culminate, 
that  God  must  be  met,  that  stewardship  is  to  be 
ended,  probation  to  be  closed,  and  results  summed 
up  in  a  final  judgment.  The  inward  conviction 
never  gets  due  voicing  for  itself  until  it  claims 
that,  as  a  subject  of  moral  government,  man  must 
render  final  account  to  him  who  stands  at  its  head 
as  sovereign  Judge. 

Some  would  say  that  this  is  less  an  original  con- 
viction and  more  a  mood  of  mind  preparatory  to 
the  revealed  announcement  of  the  fact ;  an  apti- 
tude expectant  of  the  idea,  so  that  it  is  instantly 
recognized  when  once  declared.  But  this  way  of 
conceiving  of  the  genesis  of  the  idea  differs  from 
the  other  only  by  taking  into  account  the  obscura- 
tions and  hindrances  that  result  from  human  sin. 
The  rubbish  removed,  the  vein  of  native  gold  is 
revealed  which  elsewhere  comes  frequently  to  the 
surface.     The  conviction  that  there  is   One  who 

54 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


ever  observes,  ever  rules,  and  will  reward  and 
punish,  is  another  form  in  which  this  intuitive 
belief  manifests  itself.  There  is  a  Judge.  Then 
there  is  a  judgment.  The  ideas  are  connected. 
The  one  helps  the  other,  as  parallel  thereto.  The 
broken  and  distorted  image  of  God  needs  rectifi- 
cation by  reviving  the  original  instinct ;  and  in 
like  manner  the  intuitive  energy  that  makes  for  a 
final  judgment  as  a  belief,  is  evoked  and  clarified 
by  the  removal  of  all  hindrances,  through  the  aid 
of  a  Christian  revelation. 

About  all  these  native  and  original  convictions  a 
few  things  need  to  be  considered. 

I.  They  are  liable  to  be  overlooked.  However 
native,  spontaneous,  and  universal  they  may  be  in 
themselves,  this  must  be  remembered,  that  self- 
knowledge  is  the  one  thing  most  difficult  to  obtain. 
If  the  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man,  it  is  still  a 
fact  that  thousands  never  do  actually  make  a  study 
of  their  own  consciousness.  However  universal 
any  one  of  these  convictions  may  be,  if  a  man  does 
not  look  within  he  will  not  see  it.  And  those  who 
begin  this  study  of  their  own  intuitions  may  not  be 
able  at  first  to  distinguish  those  that  are  spontane- 
ous from  those  that  seem  to  be  the  result  of  edu- 
cation only.  And,  when  seen,  some  persons  may 
not  tabulate  them  rightly  ;  while  others,  through 
lack  of  facile  language,  may  not  give  them  the 
adequate  expression.  In  a  busy  life,  so  many 
things  outside  of  our  own  consciousness  claim 
attention,  that  the  contents  of  one's  own  mind 
may  not  be  observed  until  attention  has  been 
called  to  them  by  some  other  man's  report  of  his 

55 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS   A   TREND 

consciousness.  When  we  call  these  convictions 
universal,  we  do  not  say  that  all  men  are  always 
conscious  of  them ;  but  that,  when  they  are  made 
known,  either  by  our  own  thought  or  by  the  sug- 
gestion of  other  men's  convictions,  there  is  a  quick 
answer  in  response  which  every  human  soul  is 
ready  to  give.  The  fact  of  the  liability  of  these 
primitive  and  positive  convictions  to  be  overlooked 
is  very  suggestive  as  to  the  need  of  some  further 
enlightenment  of  man  by  revelation. 

2.  Intuitions  can  be  corroborated  by  evidence. 
The  multiplication  table,  taken  at  first  entirely  on 
trust,  by  sheer  force  of  memory,  has  been  corrobo- 
rated by  the  mathematical  calculations  of  all  who 
work  at  figures.  And  in  like  manner  these  moral 
intuitions  are  shown  to  be  primitive  along  the 
whole  course  of  moral  history,  as  men  have  used, 
and  even  as  they  have  misused  them.  Rawlinson 
says: 

The  historic  review  lends  no  support  to  the  theory  that 
there  has  been  a  uniform  growth  and  progress  of  religions 
from  fetichism  to  polytheism  and  from  polytheism  to  mono- 
theism. In  most  of  the  religions  the  monotheistic  idea  is 
most  prominent  at  first,  and  gradually  becomes  obscured 
and  gives  way  to  a  polytheistic  corruption.  The  facts  point 
to  a  primitive  religion  from  without,  and  then  a  gradual 
clouding  of  the  primitive  religion  everywhere  unless  it  were 
among  the  Hebrews. 

Says  Max  Miiller : 

The  monotheistic  intuition  is  inseparable  from  the  con- 
ception of  religion,  and  we  find  traces  of  it  in  all  places 
and  all  times  ;  and  this  monotheistic  conviction  is  always 

56 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 

accompanied  by  faith  in  the  persistence  of  the  human  per- 
sonality after  death. 

Says  Rev.  George  Owen  ; 

The  old  classics  of  China  show  a  wonderful  knowledge  of 
God.  The  founders  of  the  Chinese  race  believed  in  an 
omniscient,  omnipotent,  and  omnipresent  God,  the  moral 
Governor  of  the  world  and  the  impartial  Judge  of  man. 

Livingstone  says  of  tribes  in  the  interior  of 
Africa :  "  They  have  clear  ideas  of  a  supreme  God." 
Testimonies  of  this  kind  could  be  quoted  from  an- 
thropologists, which  would  fill  many  pages.  It  is 
true  that  some  learned  writers  have  asserted  that 
polytheism  and  fetichism  were  primitive  beliefs. 
But,  going  a  little  farther  back,  they  would  be 
obliged  to  confess  to  the  fact  of  the  more  ancient 
faith.  The  trend  now  differing  from  that  forty 
years  ago  is  toward  a  belief  in  God,  in  a  moral 
government  and  in  a  judgment,  as  the  earliest  con- 
victions of  mankind.  And  here  too  is  manifested  the 
fact  that  there  is  abundant  room  for  a  new  revela- 
tion which  shall  retrace  the  old  letters,  shall  clear 
the  moss  from  the  half-effaced  words,  and  restore 
the  original  handwriting  of  God  to  the  freshness 
and  beauty  of  the  original  inscription.  Says  a 
writer  not  believed  to  be  friendly  to  the  Bible,  in 
''Articles  of  the  Negative  Creed,"  as  quoted  by 
the  "Contemporary  Review":  "A  revelation  at- 
tended by  prophecies  and  miracles  is  a  conceiv- 
able proposition,  and  might  teach  us  that  which 
otherwise  we  could  never  know." 

3.  These   intuitions   are  trustworthy  as  far  as 

57 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 


they  go}  They  are,  indeed,  but  rudiments.  They 
are  only  the  alphabet  that  makes  a  written  litera- 
ture a  possibility.  As  a  complete  religion  they 
would  be  a  manifest  failure.  They  tell  us  some- 
thing of  great  use,  when  there  is  also  power  sup- 
plied to  overcome  the  inertia  brought  about  by 
the  sinfulness  and  weakness  of  our  common  hu- 
manity. They  have  no  hint  of  helpfulness  when 
we  have  done  a  wrong,  or  have  fallen  into  any 
feebleness  through  infirmity  or  evil.  They  are 
trustworthy  deliverances  of  consciousness  as  to 
primitive  truths ;  but  they  lack  potency,  just 
where  we  most  need  it,  to  make  them  executive  for 
our  highest  moral  good.  They  are  sure  points  for 
starting  ;  but  they  do  not  insure  the  gaining  of 
the  prize  at  the  other  end  of  the  course. 

4.  These  intuitions,  however  clear  in  them- 
selves, are  liable  to  be  confused  by  us  in  our  using 
of  them.  The  axioms  of  geometry  do  not  insure 
the  correct  demonstration  by  the  pupil.  He  may 
employ  them  wrongly.  The  mind  is  sometimes 
deflected  in  its  moral  reasoning  by  unknown  preju- 
dices. We  are  less  fair  than  we  had  thought  our- 
selves. There  is  not  due  allowance  for  our  own 
personal  equation.  Other  principles  than  those  of 
the  moral  nature  come  into  antagonism.     The  vol- 

^  Commenting  on  the  remark  of  Morrison,  that  our  religious  be- 
liefs will  soon  be  "  a  pious  hope  rather  than  a  reasoned  judg- 
ment," and  also,  upon  Renan's  remark  that  religious  belief  "will 
die  out  slowly,  undermined  by  scientific  education,"  Benjamin 
Kidd  in  "Social  Evolution,"  says:  "These  beliefs  must  remain 
to  the  end  a  characteristic  feature.  These  religious  phenomena 
are  among  the  most  persistent."  Indeed,  the  main  value  of 
Kidd's  discussion  is  his  claim  for  the  reality  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment and  for  what  it  involves  and  promises. 

58 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


untary  nature  may  overrule  the  ethical.  Will 
may  be  pitted  against  God,  and  passion  against 
conscience.  There  may  be  the  cross-action  of 
mingling  and  also  of  opposing  motives.  There  are 
cyclones  on  the  ocean,  in  which  mariners  say  that 
the  wind  seems  to  blow  from  every  quarter  at 
once.  No  trend,  as  has  been  said,  is  more  sure  in 
nature  than  that  of  the  magnet  to  the  Pole ;  and 
yet  there  are  magnetic  currents  and  there  are  de 
flections  which,  unless  known  and  taken  intft 
account,  would  work  harm  to  any  ship.  She  may 
follow  her  compass  to  her  ruin,  if  the  deflections 
are  not  studied.  Nevertheless  the  compass  is  an 
essential  thing.  Let  us  give  it  all  honor.  We  do 
not  esteem  it  less  because  of  the  well-known  mag- 
netic deviations.  So  that,  by  what  these  intui- 
tions declare,  and  equally  by  their  liability  to  be 
warped  from  certainty  in  our  actual  use  of  them, 
they  call  for  something  outside  of  themselves  by 
which  we  may  study  them  the  better.  Beside  the 
true  compass,  the  mariner  carries  also  his  true 
chart,  with  all  the  currents,  alike  of  the  terrestrial 
and  the  magnetic  oceans,  carefully  described  ;  and 
with  all  the  allowances  that  must  be  made  for  safe 
navigation  carefully  set  down. 

And  herein,  again,  is  the  need  of  revelation 
clearly  manifest.  The  intuition  in  some  minds 
may  need  liberation  from  the  self-will  or  from  the 
wrong  reasoning  of  the  individual  man.  There  are 
tides  of  popular  feeling  that  eddy  about  each 
man's  personal  life.  The  brighter  and  more  active 
the  mind,  the  quicker  it  is  seized  upon  and  domi- 
nated  by   the   age-spirit.     Always   some  wind   is 

59 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 


blowing  over  the  particular  continent  on  which  one 
lives  his  mental  and  moral  life.  And  the  demand 
is  clear  for  some  rectification,  for  some  outside 
help,  in  restoring  polarity,  in  insuring  against  un- 
known and  dangerous  currents.  There  is  certainly 
room  for  a  revelation  from  God,  for  correction,  for 
instruction,  and  for  reproof.  Says  Professor  Bruce  : 
*'  By  reason  of  sin,  the  confusion  of  social  life, 
and  the  apparent  play  of  mechanical  necessity  in 
the  events  of  the  world,  the  light  of  intuition  is 
dim.  Our  intuitions  and  inferences  require  con- 
firmation ;  our  faith,  in  its  weakness,  cries  out  for 
help.     What  we  need,  we  get  in  the  Gospels."' 

5.  Intuitions  may  be  called  forth  by  facts. 
That  they  may  lie  partially  dormant,  waiting  for 
that  which  is  intended  to  rouse  them,  is  certain. 
For  are  they  not  capacities  as  well  as  potencies  ? 
Are  they  not,  as  are  all  other  parts  of  our  human 
nature,  voices  waiting  for  fit  words  in  which  to  give 
themselves  better  utterance  ?  It  is  this  capacity, 
not  only  for  the  development  of  the  instinct  in  its 
own  province  as  an  mstinct,  but  as  a  power  to  free 
itself  from  the  oppression  of  other  influences  and 
to  avail  itself  of  other  outside  forces  that  it  may 
have  opportunity  to  work  out  its  legitimate  results, 
which  we  have  just  now  in  view.  An  instinctive 
conviction  cannot  be  made  more  or  less  a  convic- 
tion in  itself ;  but  it  can  be  obscured  and  debased 
by  other  and  outside  potencies  ;  and  it  can  also  be 
clarified  and  so,  in  its  actual  workings,  be  made  of 
larger  worth. 

And  just  here  there  is  room  for  a  parallel  reve- 
lation   which    shall    present    those  facts,  whether 

60 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


Hebraistic  or  Christian,  which  tend  toward  rousing 
these  intuitions  to  their  normal  energy.  The  idea, 
native  to  the  human  mind,  of  one  God  and  he  a 
spiritual  being,  is  kept  in  proper  exercise  by  hav- 
ing the  attention  directed  to  moral  and  spiritual 
truths.  These  moral  and  spiritual  facts  create  a 
clearer  atmosphere  in  which  the  intuition  can  best 
give  us  its  deliverances.  A  religious  education  in 
which  the  mind  and  soul  are  early  led  to  use  the 
moral  and  spiritual  powers,  tends  to  liberate  these 
instincts  and  give  them  largest  room  for  exercise. 
Taught  to  regard  God  as  a  Spirit  and  one's  central 
self  as  also  a  spirit,  there  is  the  consciousness  of 
acting  in  a  spiritual  realm  of  things,  the  reality  of 
which  is  not  only  assured  by  the  parallel  facts,  but 
by  the  deepest  and  most  central  conviction  of  our 
very  nature  itself.  Whatever  helps  us  from  the 
outside,  carries  with  it  a  kind  of  evidence  that  it 
comes  from  the  God  whose  sign-manual  is  set  upon 
it.  That  thing  which  is  so  helpful  is  thus  shown 
to  be  a  co-partner  with  these  instincts  in  the  moral 
realm  of  things.  It  is  in  this  way — by  outside  and 
parallel  facts  which  minister  best  to  these  moral 
convictions — that  we  find  the  difference  between 
the  ''pure  indestructible  Godward  instinct"  and 
those  depraved  conceptions  of  the  idea  of  God 
which  have  been  so  baleful  in  human  history. 

6.  These  moral  intuitions  are  mutually  con- 
sistent. Consistency  with  each  other  is  not 
enough  to  claim  for  them,  but  each  is  consistent 
with  the  whole.  Sir  William  Hamilton,  speaking 
of  these  primary  convictions  of  the  human  soul, 
says : 

6i 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

They  are  many  ;  they  are  in  co-ordinate  authority,  and 
their  testimony  is  clear  and  precise.  It  is  therefore  compe- 
tent for  us  to  view  them  in  correlation,  to  compare  their 
declarations.  No  attempt  to  show  that  the  data  of  conscious- 
ness are  mutually  contradictory  has  yet  succeeded. 

The  reason  is  evident.  They  are  together  what 
hands  and  feet  and  heart  and  brain  are  to  the 
body — parts  of  one  vital  system.  The  eye  is  not 
only  for  the  light  and  the  air  for  the  lungs,  but  all 
four  of  them  are  adaptations  of  man  to  the  physi- 
cal world  and  of  the  physical  world  to  man.  And 
thus  it  comes  about  that  plain  men,  scarcely  able 
to  formulate  these  instincts  and  to  separate  one 
from  the  other,  act  upon  them  freely,  and  know 
only  this,  that  they  have  a  general  conviction 
about  religious  truth  which  nothing  can  dislodge. 
Many  a  plain  Christian  can  be  thrown  into  a  state 
of  doubt  when  an  opponent  comes  to  him  with 
purely  logical  difficulties.  He  cannot  answer  the 
objector,  but  he  knows  that  the  objection  can  be 
answered  at  some  time  and  by  somebody,  because 
the  moral  instinct  within  him  abides  firm.  He 
knows  the  opponent  is  wrong ;  but  how  he  knows 
it,  he  is  not  able  to  say.  So  that  the  strong  lo- 
gician, who  has  his  laugh  against  ''  the  narrowness 
of  the  men  who  will  not  yield  to  reason,"  may  be 
the  narrower  of  the  two,  since  he  uses  but  one 
side,  and  that  not  the  largest  or  the  surest  side,  of 
himself  on  moral  themes.  The  fact  that  these 
convictions  are  mutually  consistent  brings  about, 
in  such  a  plain  man's  mind,  a  whole  inner  world  of 
exchangeable  moral  moods  and  sympathies  which 
fortify  him  against  such  assaults.    On  some  special 

62 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


lines  he  has  not  as  yet  accurately  sounded  and 
mapped  out  his  own  deeper  selfhood.  But  his 
moral  convictions  have  been  roused  by  the  con- 
tact with  revealed  truth. 

And  so  the  assaults  of  unbelief  have  been  in 
vain.  For  the  moral  intuitions,  working  together, 
have  detected  the  fact  that  something  was  wrong 
in  the  plausible  objection.  So  that  plain  men,  by 
the  happy  care  which  gave  them  as  an  original 
part  of  themselves  this  inner  body  of  moral  truth, 
have  often  been  saved  from  error  and  sin  when  no 
other  aid  was  at  hand.  Soon  thereafter  they  may 
have  refreshed  their  own  minds  by  the  scriptural 
statement  of  the  truth.  But  the  assault  found  its 
first  resistance  in  their  own  instinctive  convictions. 
A  God  who  is  a  spiritual  being  is  a  correlative  fact 
with  a  spiritual  nature  in  man.  The  distinction, 
vital  and  indestructible,  between  "  the  true  and 
the  false,"  demands  a  Standard  Mind,  agreement 
with  whom  is  the  rectification  of  this  distinction ; 
since  his  conviction  is  the  absolute  truth.  A 
moral  God  is  for  the  same  reason  the  Standard 
Soul  of  the  universe,  agreement  with  whom  is 
"the  right,"  and  disagreement  with  whom  is  ''the 
wrong." 

This  God,  a  moral  God,  is  also  by  correlation  of 
ideas,  a  Moral  Governor.  And  by  the  same  con- 
nection of  principles,  a  moral  governor  of  man 
must  be  man's  final  Judge,  to  whose  decision  the 
limited  time  of  a  probation  looks  forward — a  de- 
cision being  necessary  at  the  close  of  any  period 
of  probation.  There  is  thus  the  relation  and  the 
interaction  of  these  intuitions.     And  such  a  free 

63 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

play  of  these  principles  used  by  the  plain  every- 
day men,  of  whom  the  great  mass  of  the  race  is 
made  up,  is  itself  a  notable  fact  in  the  Divine 
ordering  of  the  world's  moral  life. 

7.  These  intuitions  are  prophetic.  The  hands 
on  the  human  body  are  made  to  grasp.  They  are 
prophetic  of  a  world  outside  the  hands  themselves. 
All  faculties  of  body  and  mind — unless  one  should 
claim  that  these  moral  instincts  are  the  exception 
— are  prophetic.  But  why  should  any  one  ask  to 
have  these  integral  parts  of  our  nature  excepted  ? 
The  fact  that  they  work  differently  from  the  rest 
of  our  mental  and  moral  organism,  is  exactly  par- 
alleled by  our  bodily  organism,  in  which  some  parts 
work  in  ways  unlike  others.  The  body  does  not 
terminate  on  itself ;  no  more  does  the  mind.  They 
are  each  in  a  certain  sphere  of  things  to  which 
they  are  correlated.  The  correlation  is  as  much  a 
fact  as  the  organism.     All  this  is  prophetic. 

In  the  old  Hebrew  religion  there  were  prophetic 
rites  and  ceremonies.  Some  of  that  nation  saw 
only  the  rite  and  never  the  meaning;  only  the 
ritual,  never  what  it  betokened  ;  only  the  shadow, 
never  the  substance ;  only  the  orderly  procedure 
of  the  service,  never  the  glorious  prophecy  of  the 
Messiah  of  God.  So  it  is  about  these  intui- 
tions. Some  would  stop  with  them.  But  a  hun- 
dred times  the  experiment  has  been  tried,  until  it 
is  sure  that  to  stop  with  them  is  to  stifle  them.  A 
few  merely  philosophical  men,  amusing  their  intel- 
lectual leisure  by  discussing  these  fundamental  in- 
stincts, have  proposed  to  accept  them  as  a  religion. 
But  neither  they  themselves,  nor  any  appreciable 

64 


THE    GATHERED     MATERIAL 


fraction  of  the  human  race,  has  ever  stood  on  that 
ground  for  any  length  of  time.  To  collect  the 
words  of  dissatisfaction  which  the  best  of  these 
men  have  uttered  would  be  an  easy  but  an  unneces- 
sary labor.  Philosophy  teaches  about  a  religion, 
but  it  is  not  itself  a  religion.  If  you  set  down  its 
value  in  itself  alone,  if  you  consider  it  as  its  own 
end,  you  will  find  that  the  estimate  of  its  influence 
on  the  world  at  large  is  but  inconsiderable.  It  is 
the  hands  grasping — but  grasping  at  air.  The  feet 
lifted  to  walk — but  left  lifted.  It  is  appetite  with- 
out bread ;  it  is  thirst  without  the  natural  supply 
of  water.  There  is  a  vast  cumulative  want.  With 
close  study  men  may,  by  the  light  of  the  intellect, 
look  down  into  the  soul  and  see  and  tabulate  its 
instinctive  ideas.  But  this  is  to  make  a  philosophy 
rather  than  to  discover  a  religion.  And  after  the 
study  is  completed,  the  satisfaction  is  not  that  of 
the  satisfied  soul,  but  only  the  merely  intellectual 
satisfaction  of  having  discerned  that  the  instinct 
is  a  fact  of  our  human  nature. 

The  religions  of  the  world  have,  alike  by  the 
perversion  and  by  the  satisfaction  of  these  moral 
instincts,  shown  that  they  crave  a  person.  Whether 
this  does  or  does  not  involve  a  peculiar  and  even 
inspired  record  of  the  sayings  and  doings,  both 
ordinary  or  extraordinary,  of  this  person,  is  to  be 
afterward  considered.  But  the  first  thing  is  the 
person  who  shall  gather  up,  with  due  recognition 
and  endorsement,  these  instincts.  The  attempts 
to  supply  this  need  of  a  person  have  given  us 
heroes  and  demigods,  lords  many  and  manifold, 
who  have  been  worshiped  more  or  less   fully  by 

E  65 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


their  fellow-men.  The  long  line  of  mythological 
personages  shows  that  the  worshipful  spirit,  the 
result  of  these  instincts,  is  a  power  among  man- 
kind. If  the  One  Holy  God  has  been  discarded, 
the  idea  of  a  god  of  some  sort  remains.  Rever- 
ence requires  a  person  to  be  reverenced. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  other  perversions  of 
original  moral  intuitions.  The  singular  applica- 
tions of  the  idea  of  God's  care  as  extending  only 
to  a  class  of  things  or  to  a  class  of  men ;  the  sin- 
gular limitations  of  the  idea  of  the  right  and  the 
wrong,  so  that  kingly  or  priestly  men  were  ex- 
empted from  the  law  that  binds  others ;  the  singu- 
larly grotesque  conceptions  of  the  immortal  life  in 
its  heaven  and  its  hell ;  the  strangely  fantastic  ideas 
connected  with  the  final  day  of  judgment— all 
these  things  show  that,  in  such  a  world  as  ours 
and  in  such  a  race  as  this  of  which  we  are  mem- 
bers, there  is  need  of  rectification  from  without 
by  some  one  who  can  clear  away  the  debris  of  the 
fall  and  restore  man  to  his  primitive  selfhood. 
These  primary  convictions  were  primarily  trust- 
worthy. They  are  sure  when  we  get  back  to  them 
in  their  original  force  and  purity.  And  the  book 
that  can  reassert,  confirm,  and  enforce  them  must 
also  be  a  sure  and  trustworthy  book,  with  all  of 
inspiration  which  such  a  book  involves. 

In  another  way,  the  degree  of  success  gained  by 
religions  has  shown  the  same  fact.  A  person  is  to 
emerge  in  all  the  older  and  better  beliefs.  They 
all  have  a  version,  varied  somewhat,  of  the  primal 
promise,  that  One  should  appear  to  bruise  the  evil 
one  who  had  so  bruised  and  taken  captive  the  race. 

66 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


In  naming  these  primitive  ideas  in  the  human 
mind  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  chapter,  the  pro- 
found expectation  of  a  person  as  the  world's 
teacher  and  deliverer  and  saviour  was  not  included. 
And  the  omission  was  less  because  of  doubt  con- 
cerning it,  and  more  because  it  will  be  conceded 
by  all  that  there  is  at  least  an  aptitude  for  it. 
There  is  a  preparation,  a  presumption.  It  stands 
very  near  to  a  first  truth.  It  is  close  upon  a  pri- 
mary conviction.  There  is  an  appetency  for  it. 
All  the  grand  old  historic  souls  of  the  world  got 
from  their  own  or  from  succeeding  generations  a 
little  fragment  of  the  reverence  and  worship  that, 
in  its  fullness,  can  be  given  only  to  some  divine 
Person  who  assembles  in  himself  all  the  separate 
excellences  they  had  exhibited,  and  who  naturally 
demands  therefore  the  utmost  of  reverence  and  de- 
votion. This  idea,  indestructible  when  once  pro- 
claimed, universally  received  when  once  announced, 
exactly  fits  all  these  primitive  instincts,  even  if  it 
is  not  itself  one  of  them. 

But  the  men  who  are  appointed  to  represent 
each  in  some  faint  degree  the.  excellences  of  this 
expected  One  must  be  in  a  series,  and  over  them 
must  preside  a  divine  Providence.  God's  guidance 
of  things  and  men,  his  intervening  hand  through 
law,  or,  if  need  ever  be,  above  law,  is  the  inspiration 
of  all  history.  That  the  events  are  inspired  in  the 
sense  that  they  are  guided  toward  the  world's 
readiness  to  apprehend  the  Person  who  is  to  restore 
the  race,  is  one  of  the  main  things  about  inspira- 
tion. It  is  the  inspiration  not  only  of  single  events, 
but    it   is  inspiration    in    marshaling    them  in  an 

67 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS   A   TREND 

orderly  series.  The  chain,  link  by  link,  is  forged 
and  united.  No  link  is  too  small  for  the  care  of 
the  One  who  constructs  it  all  out  of  the  freedom 
of  all  things  and  all  men  under  his  laws.  The  in- 
spiration of  the  events  is  that  out  of  which  all 
other  kinds  of  inspiration  can  come.  Other  in- 
spiration demanded  is  supplementary.  The  events 
bring  in  due  time  the  Person.  The  Bible  is  the 
record  of  the  series  of  these  inspired  occurrences, 
of  the  evolution  of  them  with  reference  to  the 
Person,  and  of  their  culmination  in  the  person 
and  work  of  Christ  Jesus. 

It  will  be  admitted  that  these  primary  truths, 
described  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  chapter,  are 
taken  up,  endorsed,  and  employed  in  the  Bible. 
As  these  "  moral  axioms  "  agree  among  themselves, 
so  they  agree  with  this  book.  The  New  Testa- 
ment does  not  traverse  any  one  of  them.  It  clari- 
fies them.  It  newly  applies  them.  Its  Christ 
ever  appeals  to  them.  Its  apostles  simply  expand 
his  utterances.  The  authority  of  the  apostles  is 
not  original,  but  derived  from  him.  They  also 
work  on  the  same  basis  of  these  instinctive  con- 
victions. 

It  is  true  that  the  Bible  takes  into  account,  as 
these  primitive  cognitions  do  not,  certain  dam- 
aging facts  resulting  from  human  sin.  But  in  es- 
timating this  disturbance  from  normal  conditions, 
one  source  of  its  appeal  is  to  this  indestructible 
sense  of  the  right  and  wrong  in  us.  By  this  in- 
stinctive moral  standard  we  know  of  the  sin  and 
so  of  the  need  of  the  forgiveness  and  restoration. 
The  book  clears  away  the  mists  that  rise  from  this 

68 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


sinning  nature.  The  book  sharpens  to  its  original 
potency  the  sense  of  God  as  holy,  of  him  as  the 
moral  governor  of  the  world,  and  of  him  as  the 
one  we  must  meet  in  judgment,  and  with  whom  we 
must  abide  or  from  whom  we  must  depart  forever. 
Of  the  remedy  for  sin's  dominion  and  doom  these 
instincts  say  nothing.  They  only  help  us  to  judge 
of  the  extent  of  the  need.  They  prepare  us  for 
that  widespread  expectation  of  a  Divine  Person  who 
is  the  world's  hope.  But  just  because  they  cannot 
tell  us  more  definitely,  they  hold  out  welcoming 
hands  toward  the  book  which  records  for  us  what 
we  know  of  the  Person.  The  book  thus  comes  to 
stand  very  close  to  these  fundamental  truths  in- 
volved in  all  our  thought  on  moral  themes.  All 
their  trend  is  toward  it.  They  are  mutual  agents 
in  a  common  realm  of  things.  The  primitive  con- 
victions of  the  moral  nature  and  of  the  book  are 
so  nearly  one — the  book  indeed  going  farther,  but 
always  along  the  same  lines  as  they — that  for  a 
vast  number  of  plain  men  the  authority  of  the  one 
is  practically  that  of  the  other.  The  testimony 
from  the  two  sources  of  authority  is  so  mingled  in 
their  minds  that  the  difference  between  the  inner 
and  outer  handwritings  is  not  really  distinguished. 
The  book  is  about  a  person.  Christianity  is  dif- 
ferentiated from  all  other  religions  in  that  it  gath- 
ers, not  primarily  about  precepts  or  even  doctrines, 
but  about  a  person,  Jesus  Christ.  Each  Christian 
is  a  person  also,  with  a  personality  capable  of 
being  moved  in  its  central  depths  by  this  Person. 
Mahomet  was  not  Islam,  but  only  its  prophet. 
Christ     himself    is    Christianity.      P^or    this    good 

69 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 


reason  the  Bible,  which  has  for  its  center  this 
Christ,  takes  hold  of  these  primary  convictions. 
The  book  with  its  Christ  and  the  handwriting 
within  the  soul  are  in  close  conformity.  They  live 
and  breathe  and  glow  and  throb  as  one.  They 
find  the  same  goal.  To  multitudes  the  apprehen- 
sion of  the  person  revealed  in  the  book  rectifies, 
strengthens,  persuades,  dominates  the  conscience 
within  their  own  souls.  The  purest  consciousness 
is  that  of  men  who  have  an  experience  of  the  re- 
ligion of  Jesus  Christ.  We  can  study  with  best 
results  these  Christian  souls  in  which  there  is  a 
consciousness  most  nearly  normal.  We  get  near- 
est the  true  manhood  of  man  in  such  men.  And 
invariably  they  are  men  saturated  with  this  book. 
They  have  the  Holy  Spirit  witnessing  in  their 
spirits  that  they  are  the  children  of  God. 

Some  things  the  common  consciousness  of  the 
human  race  gives  us.  Some  things  are  given  us 
by  the  special  consciousness  of  the  great  consent- 
ing religious  experience  of  Christians.  Experi- 
mental religion  has  its  deliverances  about  the  book, 
about  the  person  in  whom  it  centers,  and  about  the 
agreement  of  the  person  and  of  the  book  with  the 
affirmations  of  our  clearest  and  most  exalted  moral 
moods.  In  the  great  consensus  of  Christian  experi- 
ence we  get  testimony  in  its  purest  form.  The  Lick 
Observatory,  with  its  larger  disk  and  longer  range 
and  greater  height  and  clearer  atmosphere,  gets  itself 
accepted  in  its  discoveries  by  the  whole  astronomic 
world.  Farther  on,  we  shall  study  more  largely 
this  religious  experience  to  find  its  contents  and 
its  deliverences.      But,  here  and  now,  it  is  quoted 

70 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


as  a  parallel  fact  with  those  other  utterances  and 
is,  with  them,  closely  allied  to  a  whole  series  of 
consenting  and  agreeing  moral  facts.  The  book 
and  these  primitive  convictions  give  us  just  that 
alliance  which  broadens  the  moral  basis  for  our  in- 
duction. We  are  gathering  a  vast  amount  of  moral 
material  which,  by  its  certainty  and  positiveness, 
is  of  great  worth  on  the  question  of  inspiration. 

In  the  examination  of  our  primary  moral  intui- 
tions we  saw  certain  facts  which  are  a  warrant  for 
conclusions.     Close  to  them,  in        c      •      tt 

especial    ao^reement  with   them   ^      .  x^^^,  i'l., 
1  .     J-       .      r        .1  Our  Actual  Bible 

and  tendmg  to  tree  these  con- 
victions from  obscurity  and  to  give  them  larger 
scope,  we  saw  that  a  certain  book,  popularly  called 
the  Bible,  is  of  great  value.  Its  endorsement  of 
these  convictions,  its  statements  concerning  certain 
great  facts,  and  the  experience  which  it  has  gene- 
rated in  the  human  soul,  are  parallel  phenom- 
ena. Multitudes  of  plain  men  never  make  the 
distinction  between  the  primary  truths  learned  by 
analysis  of  their  own  natural  convictions  and  those 
which  are  engendered  by  the  teachings  of  the 
Bible.  It  must  be,  for  them,  the  Bible  as  a  stand- 
ard of  appeal.  They  are  so  situated  in  life,  so 
constituted  mentally  and  morally,  so  unpractised 
in  intricate  reasoning  from  distinctly  discovered 
** moral  axioms"  and  "primary  truths,"  that  the 
basis  of  moral  appeal  for  them  is  the  Bible.  This 
is  not  due  to  their  ignorance.  For  in  lines  of  com- 
mercial and  political  life  they  are  not  ignorant. 
But  they  are  busy  men,  in  a  busy  world,  who  else- 

71 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

where  do  not  work  from  primary  commercial  and 
political  principles  distinctly  recognized  and  avowed. 
They  gain  their  commercial  and  political  education 
in  other  and  outside  ways.  They  feel  the  power  of 
trend,  and  use  it  along  the  lines  of  their  life.  The 
man  at  the  wheel  steers  the  ship ;  but  he  does  it 
through  the  knowledge  of  navigation  which  the 
master  mariner  possesses.  The  master  of  the  ship 
tells  the  helmsman  the  course  he  is  to  steer.  This 
sailor  has  little  knowledge  at  first  hand  of  astron- 
omy or  of  navigation  ;  but  he  can  recognize  the 
captain's  competency  in  these  things.  It  is  in 
part  knowledge  and  in  part  trust.  He  knows 
enough  to  trust  for  what  he  does  not  know.  It 
must  be  so  with  the  great  mass  of  mankind.  We 
are  all  made  to  trust,  and  there  is  that  which  we 
are  to  trust.  The  book  stands  so  exactly  related 
to  these  primary  instincts,  is  so  manifestly  their 
fulfillment  as  prophecy,  their  complement  as  the 
half-sphere  demands  the  whole,  that  we  can  now 
look  at  certain  basal  facts  of  the  book  itself. 

I.  The  book  is  clearly  a  growth.  It  has  then 
the  token  of  life.  The  difference  between  a  thing 
dead  and  a  thing  living  is  that  one  increases  and 
the  other  grows.  The  stone  gains  from  without  ; 
but  the  plant  gains  by  growing  from  within  out- 
ward. Its  long  finger-like  roots  are  endowed  with 
the  power  of  search  for  what  it  can  take  in  and 
use  for  building  itself  up.  It  rejects  that  which  is 
harmful  and  useless.  It  finds  the  right  drop  of 
moisture  for  its  thirst,  and  the  fit  morsel  of  soil 
for  its  food.  It  responds  to  sunshine  and  rain.  It 
is  alive.     The  life  glows  as  well  as  grows.    It  thrusts 

72 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


out  fitting  branch  and  leaf  and  fruit.  It  utilizes 
all  things  that  it  can  reach  in  its  growth.  The 
Bible  is  no  stone  increasing  by  outside  and  unsym- 
pathetic additions.  It  puts  on  its  parts  upon  the 
principle  of  growth.  It  vitalizes  the  material  it 
uses.  It  has  an  inward  and  mysterious  principle 
of  life.  It  grew.  It  did  not  happen.  It  was  not 
ready-made  in  the  skies  and  "let  down  as  so  many 
golden  plates,"  after  the  crass  conception  ascribed 
to  the  Mormon  Bible.  It  is  at  the  exact  opposite 
of  all  that.  It  is  the  one  great  original  instance 
of  a  true  evolution.  And  while  star-eyed  science 
has  been  looking  ever  since  its  birth  for  some 
simple  principle  which  should  unify  with  the  power 
of  true  life  all  this  wide  universe  of  things  and 
has  clapped  its  hands  in  almost  infantile  glee  over 
the  newly  discerned  idea  of  evolution,  it  has  only 
recognized  what,  under  other  names,  was  claimed 
twenty  centuries  ago  for  the  Hebrew  Scriptures, 
and  what  Christian  commentaries  have  from  the 
first  declared,  that  the  Bible  from  its  Genesis  to  its 
Revelation  shows  evolutionary  progress.  It  is  the 
foremost  instance  of  a  divine  thought  evolved,  de- 
veloped, and  embodied  in  shapely  form.  The 
whole  idea  of  the  book  is  unique.  It  gives  us  a 
series  of  inspired  events,  some  of  them  natural, — 
and  none  the  less  inspired  because  natural, — some 
of  them  supernatural.  They  grew  under  God's 
touch  and  were  recorded  under  the  same  shaping 
and  guiding  hand.  Men  are  acting  freely  in  these 
events,  but  God  at  the  same  time  is  inspiring  the 
events  ;  men  are  acting  freely  in  recording  the 
inspired  events,  but  God  is  as  free  to  use  their 

73 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED   AS    A   TREND 


freedom,  so  as  to  make  the  record  trustworthy. 
This  is  the  Hving  fact  about  this  living  book.  It 
possesses  itself — so  thoroughly  alive  is  it — of  all 
forms  of  literature,  to  inspire  them  with  its  vital 
idea.  It  appropriates  them  all,  and  builds  itself  up 
by  them  all ;  just  as  does  the  plant  that  selects  its 
own  drop  of  water  and  bit  of  soil.  Using  thus  all 
varieties  of  literary  form,  it  gets  its  various  hold 
on  men  of  all  aptitudes.  It  has  its  scraps  of  his- 
tory as  old  perhaps  as  Abraham — it  may  be  older ; 
and  these  are  woven  together  by  Moses,  and  then 
touched  and  retouched,  it  may  be,  until  their  final 
form  under  Ezra.  It  has  biographical  sketches, 
moral  etchings,  elaborately  wrought  pictures  of 
men  long  since  dead ;  but  their  history  is  so  strik- 
ingly instructive  that  they  rule  us  still  from  their 
silent  urns.  The  book  has  its  songs  by  Hebrew 
bards ;  and  they  are  more  frequently  quoted  than 
those  of  the  Grecian  Homer  or  the  English  Shakes- 
peare. It  has  its  prophecies  ;  and  their  fulfillment 
is  the  marvel  of  every  man  who  sees  a  Hebrew 
face  on  the  street  of  any  city  upon  any  continent 
of  the  world.  It  has  its  Gospels,  the  vividness  of 
which  makes  one  almost  see  their  Christ,  the  art- 
lessness  of  the  writers  snatching  a  grace  beyond 
the  reach  of  art.  It  has  its  brotherly  letters — 
epistles  we  call  them,  though  letters  were  a  better 
name — letters  that  discuss  the  grandest  doctrines 
and  yet  are  so  familiar  that  they  talk  about  a  cloak 
at  Troas  and  tell  a  woman  at  Corinth  to  wear  her 
hair  so  as  to  suggest  no  immodesty.  There  are 
men  so  logically  and  judicially  constructed  in  mind 
as  to  demand  the  authority  of  miracles  as  the  basis 

74 


THE   GATHERED    MATERIAL 


of  belief  in  a  revelation  from  God  ;  and  here  they 
find  their  miracles.  Others  are  charmed  and  held 
and  blessed  by  parabolic  teaching ;  and  here  it  is 
given  them.  For  those  who  crave  clearly  stated 
doctrines  with  no  needless  word  added  and  no  neces- 
sary word  omitted,  there  are  doctrinal  discussions. 
For  those  who  crave  emotion  in  religion  there  are 
the  "  lively  oracles  "  about  the  death  and  the  resur- 
rection of  the  Lord.  There  are  those  who  want 
direction  for  the  life  that  now  is  ;  and  this  book 
sets  it  before  them,  while  at  the  same  time  it  tells 
them  of  the  life  everlasting.  It  is  a  living  book 
for  living  men. 

Some  persons  want  to  put  it  down  upon  a  dis- 
secting table  and  cut  and  carve  it.  But  that  can 
only  be  done  to  a  corpse.  You  may  not  try  that 
method  with  your  friend  when  he  offers  you  his 
hand.  You  grasp  his  in  return.  This  book  meets 
you  with  a  generous  grasp.  Its  flexibility  of  form, 
its  non-scientific  method,  its  simple  carelessness 
about  apparent  contradictions  show  that  it  is  friendly 
for  friends.  It  is  a  book  of  confidences  for  those 
who  will  confide  in  it.  It  trusts  and  calls  for 
trust.  It  has  such  a  plain,  simple,  and  straightfor- 
ward air,  that  when  men  come  to  it  with  their  scien- 
tific methods,  with  their  narrow  specialties,  they 
are  quite  likely  to  mistake  its  meaning — much  as  a 
poet  would  miss  the  meaning  of  a  mathematical 
problem,  or  a  mathematician  miss  the  meaning  of 
a  poem.  It  is  the  most  baflfling  book  for  the  spe- 
cialist in  any  line,  even  of  ecclesiastical  learning ; 
but  the  best  book  for  an  all-around  religious  man. 
It  is  a  book  for  cloister  and  palace.     It  is  plainly 

75 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

a  common  book  for  mankind.  The  world  is  filled 
with  good,  fair,  honest,  workday  people,  with  men 
of  average  mental  and  moral  ability  ;  and  the  book 
is  one  which  carries  with  it  its  own  proof  for  the 
world's  toilers.  For  like  the  sun,  the  best  evi- 
dence for  it  is  to  stand  out  in  its  radiance  and  feel 
its  warmth.  Right  through  the  book  runs  one  liv- 
ing, unifying  purpose  that  makes  itself  seen  and 
felt.  History,  Prophecy,  Biography,  Gospel,  Acts, 
Epistle,  have  that  kind  of  common  human  interest 
in  them  which  captivates  the  popular  heart.  The 
book  is  for  universal  man. 

It  is  a  book  of  live  issues.  True,  its  Genesis  is 
about  men  and  things  long  gone  by.  But  for  that 
very  reason  some  minds  crave  its  instruction. 
There  is  a  living  present  interest  in  some  very  old 
questions.  All  the  living  interest  in  astronomy 
to-day  is  about  God's  very  ancient  stars  in  his  an- 
cient heavens.  The  interest  in  chemistry  is  about 
God's  ancient  laws,  whereby  so  many  parts  of  one 
element,  no  more,  no  less,  chemically  combine 
with  just  so  many  parts,  no  more,  no  less,  of  an- 
other element  and  go  to  form  a  new  thing.  When 
God  puts  his  sign  manual  on  a  thing  however  old, 
be  it  star  or  book,  the  thing  so  stamped  does  not 
drop  out  of  human  interest.  The  "  living  issues  " 
are  not  those  of  social  reform,  or  political  preference. 
They  touch  individual  souls.  The  limits  of  any 
reform  are  found  in  the  number  of  individuals 
whose  hearts  are  reached  and  lifted,  and  who  have 
lifting  power  on  the  community.  Mount  Wash- 
ington on  its  broad  shoulders  lifts  the  whole  presi- 
dential range  of  the  White   Hills  of  New  Hamp- 

76 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


shire.  The  living  questions,  the  vital  issues  of 
freedom  were  met  by  our  Lord  when  the  civil 
reformers  of  Judea  wanted  him  to  take  up  their 
"burning  question  of  civil  liberty,"  and  he  bade 
them  remember  that  true  freedom  was  personal, 
was  a  matter  of  the  soul,  and  was  secured  through 
discipleship.  Striking  deeper,  rising  higher,  and 
spreading  wider  than  any  local  question  is  the  great 
question  of  sin  and  its  Deliverer.  This  is  the 
thought  which  throbs  through  this  book,  from  the 
primal  promise  following  hard  after  the  primal  sin 
to  the  second  advent  of  the  victorious  Lord  as  he 
comes  to  add  the  "amen"  to  the  completed  ages 
of  redemption. 

II.  The  method  of  the  book  is  historical :  a 
method  having  clearly  its  excellences  and  its  de- 
fects. The  defects,  however,  are  such  as  can  be 
remedied  for  the  thoughtful  reader.  He  has  only 
to  recall  two  simple  facts.  One  of  them  is  that 
there  is  to  be  a  recognition  of  the  special  time  in 
which  each  one  of  the  books  was  written — the  his- 
torical perspective.  And  the  other  is  the  fact  of 
our  duty  in  this  century  to  bear  in  mind  the  prin- 
ciples and  aims  of  the  New  Testament  when  one 
reads  any  portion  of  the  Old  Testament  for  de- 
votional purposes  and  for  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness. 

No  historic  writer  escapes  the  influence  of  his 
own  age  or  vacates  his  own  personality.  For  him 
to  appear  to  do  so  would  be  suspicious.  For  him 
really  to  do  so  would  be  impossible.  For  he  could 
not  be  understood  in  his  own  age  if  he  used  facts 
that  had  not  been  discerned  or  forms  of  speech 

77 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

not  familiar.  That  such  a  writer  is  constrained  and 
restrained  by  the  literature  of  his  time  is  certain. 
And  the  fact  is  a  water-mark  that  evidences  his 
truthfulness.  He  may  quote  a  public  historic 
document  which,  inexact  for  some  purposes,  is  ex- 
act for  his.  He  may  use  phrases  current  in  his 
time,  exactly  as  we  do  in  our  age,  which  will  not 
bear  a  literal  meaning.  They  may  be  linguistic- 
ally inexact,  but  they  are  the  very  phrases  living 
men  were  using  when  he  wrote.  If  he  is  a  his- 
toric writer,  and  on  that  account  obliged  to  name 
geographical  facts,  he  is  compelled  by  the  limita- 
tions of  his  time  to  use  the  current  geographical 
knowledge.  That  knowledge  may  have  been,  prob- 
ably was,  defective.  But  there  need  be  therefore 
no  error  in  the  religious  use  he  makes  of  it.  The 
facts,  as  he  quotes  them,  are  true  for  his  purposes. 
If  he  used  language  founded  on  discoveries  made 
only  in  these  later  centuries,  the  cry  of  fraud  could 
be  raised.  The  Bible  writer  never  does  that  thing. 
To  insist  that  the  Bible  shall  be  geographically 
exact  according  to  the  science  of  this  age,  is  to 
make  it  other  than  an  inspired  book  of  religion. 
And  a  book  of  perfected  science  in  geography, 
geology,  astronomy,  and  ethnology  would  be  very 
largely  unintelligible  even  to  us  to-day.  For  the 
last  word  in  any  science  is  yet  to  be  spoken.  To 
ask  that  the  Bible  be  perfect  in  its  Hebrew  and 
Greek  forms  of  literary  art  is  to  ask  that  it  be  not 
a  human  production  at  all.  It  claims  to  have  been 
written  by  men  as  well  as  inspired  by  God.  And 
on  every  page  it  shows  the  stamp  of  a  special  age 
and  the  peculiarities  of  a  particular  man.     It  has 

78 


THE   GATHERED    MATERIAL 


not  only  perspective  but  personality.  It  has  a  dis- 
tinct local  coloring  and  it  has  also  a  happy  indi- 
vidualism. Literary  imperfection,  in  so  far  as  it 
exists,  is  absolutely  consistent  with  moral  and  re- 
ligious perfection.  Euclid,  imperfect  as  poetry,  is 
perfect  as  geometry.  Homer,  allowed  to  be  im- 
perfect in  his  geography  and  history,  at  some 
points  using  large  license,  is  yet  claimed  as  ap- 
proaching perfection  in  a  certain  line  of  poetic 
excellence. 

The  authors  of  the  Bible  have  always  the  de- 
fects of  their  excellences,  from  the  standpoint  of 
literary  judgment ;  but  this  impairs  neither  their 
honesty  nor  their  credibility  in  their  own  sphere  of 
religion.  And  when  in  any  court  of  justice,  va- 
riety in  the  mental  endowment  or  linguistic  attain- 
ments of  witnesses  testifying  to  a  fact  under  oath 
shall  be  held  to  invalidate  testimony,  then  the  same 
may  be  charged  upon  these  biblical  witnesses. 
To  dwell  largely  on  the  errors  of  a  man  who  is 
testifying  in  court  because  he  uses  a  popular  but 
inexact  phrase;  to  object  to  his  testimony  because 
his  words  are  not  cast  in  the  best  mold  of  human 
speech,  would  show  a  lawyer  who  knew  he  had  a 
poor  cause  and  was  raising  dust  to  obscure  justice. 
To  attempt  to  impugn  the  veracity  of  a  man  be- 
cause in  his  testimony  he  speaks  of  the  sun  as 
"rising"  or  as  ''setting"  on  a  given  day  would 
show  not  the  exact  jurist,  but  the  shallow  petti- 
fogger. 

And  yet,  though  not  intended  to  teach  historic 
but  religious  truth,  the  side  issues  in  the  record  of 
various    national    events    even    when    incidentally 

79 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

named,  are  of  a  certain  degree  of  value.  And  as 
the  great  aim  of  the  book  is  to  show  how  a  given 
promise  is  fulfilled  in  the  development  of  a  certain 
family  and  afterward  in  a  certain  nation,  the  his- 
torical accuracy  in  these  essential  things  is  basal. 
Only  we  must  remember  that  events  are  viewed 
phenomenally.  The  early  history  of  the  globe 
and  of  the  creation  of  man  could  have  had  no 
eye-witness.  The  revelation  of  the  facts  afterward 
to  men  who  should  set  them  down  for  the  world's 
belief  may  not  be  expressly  scientific  in  form. 
The  method  seems  to  be  optical,  and  the  defects 
of  such  a  method  do  not  hinder  it  from  being 
more  truthful  for  mankind  than  mere  scientific 
descriptions  would  be.  For  the  defects  of  the 
purely  scientific  method  are  obvious  as  a  medium 
of  moral  impression,  and  moral  and  religious  im- 
pression by  means  of  the  facts  is  clearly  the  aim 
of  the  early  historian.  The  phenomenal  method  of 
describing  facts  in  nature  has  been  held,  even  by  the 
severest  scientific  critics,  to  be  in  some  respects  the 
more  accurate.  Principal  Shairp,  in  his  "  Studies 
in  Poetry  and  Philosophy,"  says  that  "Words- 
worth's descriptions  of  nature  are  never  once  at 
fault,  though  his  method  is  never  once  scientific." 
Truth  is  true  here  from  its  own  point  of  view, 
and  from  that  only.  Professor  Proctor,  writing 
of  an  eclipse,  speaks  of  the  value  to  science  of 
the  non-scientific  method,  and  gives  as  an  instance 
the  fact  that  his  wife,  who  saw  the  phenomena 
optically  rather  than  scientifically,  called  his  atten- 
tion away  from  the  aspect  he  was  noticing  to  cer- 
tain other  and  very  important  and  characteristic 

80 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


facts.  He  terms  this  **  the  true  artistic  faculty  as 
distinguished  from  the  scientific."  This  is  the 
old  Homeric  method,  and,  as  Proctor  points  out, 
it  is  the  method  of  Genesis. 

As  with  Moses  in  Genesis  describing  the  origin 
of  earthly  history,  so  it  is  with  John  describing  its 
consummation.  In  such  circumstances  only  the 
optical  form  is  possible  ;  only  the  optical  form  is 
accurate  ;  only  the  optical  form  can  be  of  religious 
use  throughout  the  long  centuries  for  which  the 
book  will  live.  The  shifting  scenes  pass  before 
the  writer's  vision.  He  records  them  as  he  sees 
them.  There  is  absolute  truth  for  the  ends  he  has 
in  view. 

As  no  living  man  sees  the  beginning  so  as  to  be 
able  as  an  eye-witness  to  testify  to  the  facts,  so 
it  is  with  the  closing  events  of  the  world's  history. 
In  the  Apocalypse  the  visions  roll,  like  sunset 
clouds  driven  by  storm  winds,  one  upon  another, 
until  all  you  can  say  is  that  the  west  is  aflame 
with  gold  and  glory.  By  this  method  the  grand 
impression  is  gained — perhaps  no  more  was  in- 
tended to  be  gained — that  ''  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world  are  to  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord." 
Through  the  rifts  of  dissolving  visions,  as  the 
scenes  constantly  change,  there  are  bright  glimpses 
of  the  heavenly  world  with  its  golden  city,  where 
are  gathered  forever  the  children  of  the  kingdom. 
The  closing  of  the  Revelation  is  disappointing  to 
those  who  apply  to  this  book  those  methods  of  in- 
terpretation which  are  suited  to  other  portions  of 
the  sacred  word.  Why  should  we  not  have  in  the 
Bible  one  book  which  is  intended  to  impress  and, 
F  8i 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

if  you  will,  in  some  instances  to  overawe  the  mind. 
These  visions  roll  on  like  thunder  in  the  sky,  and 
their  use  is  to  make  men  cry  out,  ''The  Lord  God 
omnipotent  reigneth."  They  are  true  to  their 
end,  and  closely  examined,  they  commend  them- 
selves as  the  wise  methods  of  God.  It  is  signifi- 
cant that  we  find  the  utmost  of  skill  in  dealing 
with  a  matter  having  the  utmost  of  difficulty. 

Besides  the  phenomenal,  we  have  also  to  notice 
the  biographical  method  in  dealing  with  human 
history.  The  true  method  of  historical  writing 
has  lately  asserted  itself.  It  is  substantially  a  re- 
turn to  the  old  scriptural  form  of  biographical 
narration.  It  looks  through  the  eyes  of  a  con- 
temporary man  and  sees  the  events  as  he  would 
see  them.  It  gets  the  gauge  of  a  century,  and 
the  deeds  then  done  are  seen  in  their  own  light. 
Our  best  historians  to-day  are  biographers.  On 
the  slender  thread  of  historic  order  they  string 
the  events  as  seen  by  the  representative  men  of 
an  age.  Macaulay  and  Motley  and  Prescott  have 
chosen  the  method  of  personal  portraiture  as  the 
most  natural  and  philosophical,  as  well  as  the  most 
artistic  and  accurate.  The  modern  is  the  ancient 
and  the  scriptural  method  of  historical  writing. 
It  allows  the  incidental  to  be  recorded ;  for  an  inci- 
dent lets  us  into  the  heart  of  things.  It  admits 
the  trivial  detail  when  that  detail  discovers  to  us 
the  tendency  of  an  age.  It  seems  gossipy  ;  but  so 
is  Boswell's  "Johnson,"  which  is  the  first  biogra- 
phy in  English  literature,  not  only  of  a  man,  but 
of  the  men  of  his  time.  If  this  sort  of  work 
seems  to  lack  stateliness  it  is  not  lacking  in  heart. 

82 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


And  if  it  has  the  dramatic  charm  of  the  romance, 
it  has  none  the  less  the  self-evidencing  tokens  of 
genuine  history.  Nor  is  the  method  only  bio- 
graphical ;  it  is  even  autobiographical.  We  have 
Moses  telling  us  what  Moses  said.  We  have  Ezra 
recording,  with  an  artlessness  that  fascinates  us, 
the  movements  alike  of  his  heart  and  his  hand. 
In  the  Ecclesiastes  we  have  mental  and  moral 
autobiography  :  the  history  of  a  soul  attracted  by 
successive  systems  of  philosophic  thought,  seduced 
by  them  each  in  turn,  and  then  coming  back  from 
all  these  wanderings  to  rest  in  the  conviction  that 
the  "  end  of  all  wisdom  is  to  fear  God  and  keep 
his  commandments." 

As  to  the  Gospels  of  the  New  Testament,  their 
word  painting  has  always  been  praised.  They  are 
sketches  of  miracle,  of  teaching,  which  reveal 
Jesus  Christ  to  us,  as  we  could  not  have  seen  him 
in  any  other  way.  They  are  more  than  pictures. 
They  are  windows,  crystalline  in  their  purity,  so 
that  we  look  through  them  as  at  a  scene  transpir- 
ing just  before  our  own  eyes.  And  the  strange 
thing  is  that  in  the  absolute  clearness  of  their 
narration  we  have  an  autobiography  of  the  writers 
that  does  not  in  the  least  color  their  story.  For 
these  biographies  of  the  writers  are  merely  acces- 
sory to  the  grand  personage  about  whom  the  chief 
interest  is  always  seen  to  gather.  Considered  with 
reference  to  the  purpose  of  the  four  Gospels,  it  is 
impossible  to  imagine  a  better  method  of  giving  the 
world  a  portraiture  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  are 
other  biographies  in  the  Bible.  But  what  if  we 
are  allowed  to  think  of  the  biographies  of  the  men 

83 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

of  Scriptural  renown  as  so  many  studies  toward  the 
final  delineation  of  our  Blessed  Lord?  What  if 
to  each  of  those  men  was  assigned  the  exemplifi- 
cation of  a  separate  grace,  which  was  to  be  con- 
veyed to  some  minor  canvas ;  and  this  always  in 
preparation  for  the  one  great  picture  which  assem- 
bles all  excellences,  and  in  which  each  virtue 
there  traced  is  here  brought  out  in  undying  per- 
fection ?  To  Christ  the  series  all  pointed.  For 
Christ  the  series  was  preparatory.  In  Christ  the 
series  culminates.  The  great  biography  has  now 
been  written.  The  task,  impossible  before — im- 
possible alike  in  conception  and  execution — has 
been  done.  Plato's  ''just  man"  has  lived,  and  so 
has  been  depicted.  Placed  in  every  situation, 
Jesus  was  stainless.  These  narratives  of  his  life 
are  faithfully  written,  so  that  his  very  words  are 
often  reported,  his  most  familiar  conversations  not 
withheld,  his  private  and  public  life  alike  spread 
out,  and  that  too  by  disciples  who  were  themselves 
opposites  in  temperament  and  each  writing  from 
his  own  impressions.  These  narratives  are  the 
standing  miracle  of  all  literature,  even  as  his  char- 
acter whom  they  describe  is  the  standing  miracle 
of  all  history. 

And  as  the  form  of  the  narrative  is  thus  pictur- 
esque and  impressive,  is  optical  and  phenomenal,  it 
is  in  consonance  with  the  facts  themselves.  They 
are  literal  and  historical  occurrences.  But  the  mi- 
raculous cannot  be  scientifically,  but  only  optically 
described.  We  can  have  the  phenomena  recorded 
in  the  case  of  a  supernatural  event  precisely  as  in 
one  which  is  only  natural,  and  the  record  can  be 

84 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


as  trustworthy.  For,  that  a  given  event  is  mirac- 
ulous is  simply  a  deduction  from  facts  which,  from 
an  optical  point  of  view,  can  be  as  readily  recorded 
as  any  other  tacts.  Human  language,  making  all 
allowance  for  its  frequent  inexactness,  can  record 
the  miraculous  facts  evolved  in  the  processes  of 
God's  revelation  to  man. 

But  another  of  these  alleged  limitations,  for 
which  allowance  is  claimed  in  respect  to  the  Old 
Testament  especially,  is  the  imperfect  moral  ideas 
of  former  ages.  The  Old  Testament  as  a  part  of 
the  Bible  in  which  truth  is  less  fully  revealed,  has 
been  held,  for  that  very  reason,  to  be  in  some  re- 
spects erroneous  in  its  morality.  So  far  as  the 
claim  has  any  justice,  we  must  remember  that  it  is 
our  duty  to  read  the  Old  Testament  in  the  light  of 
the  New,  when  we  read  devotionally  or  ethically. 
It  is  our  duty  to  throw  the  newer  light  back  upon 
the  older  obscurity.  That  there  was  among  the 
Hebrew  nation  great  "hardness  of  heart"  about 
certain  moral  questions  is  at  once  granted.  And 
the  civil  law  admitted  of  some  civil  deviation  from 
what  would  have  been  the  highest  moral  standard, 
precisely  as  is  done  in  civil  law  to-day  all  over  the 
world.  But  the  standard  for  the  individual  man  in 
his  moral  and  religious  duty  toward  God  was  not 
thus  lowered.  The  Ten  Commandments  are  a 
moral  standard  for  the  individual  man  still  quoted 
to-day.  Christ's  summary  of  the  moral  law  for 
Christianity  is  the  very  summary  made  by  Moses 
for  the  Hebrew  nation.  But  when  we  would  read 
the  devotional  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  are 
permitted  to  read  into  them  our  Christian  thought. 

85 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

Much  that  the  Psalms  say  of  their  Jehovah  we 
may  say  of  our  Jesus  ;  and  that  too  by  New  Testa- 
ment warrant/  The  lack  of  the  fullness  of  New 
Testament  ideas  in  the  Old  Testament  is  not  im- 
perfection, if  considered  in  relation  to  the  time 
when  the  Hebrew  bards  sang  their  songs  and  the 
Hebrew  prophets  spoke  in  trumpet  tones  to  a 
delinquent  people. 

It  is  true  that  some  scholarly  minds  in  a  reac- 
tionary mood  have  made  the  most  of  these  diffi- 
culties, obscurities,  and  objections.  Getting  as  far 
as  possible  from  any  merely  mechanical  theory  of 
the  construction  of  the  Bible,  they  have  uncon- 
sciously magnified  the  limitations  of  the  times 
when  the  successive  books  were  written,  and  the 
human  imperfections  of  the  writers  themselves. 
The  manward  side  of  the  Bible  has  been  all  un- 
wittingly emphasized  at  the  expense  of  the  God- 
ward  side.  And  words  have  been  spoken  about 
the  errancy  of  the  book  which  in  many  cases  were 
unadvised.  Reactions  from  traditionalism  are  as 
liable  to  mistake  as  any  mere  traditionalism  can  be. 
In  attempting  to  show  that  some  theories  of  inspi- 
ration are  mistaken,  the  historic  difficulties  have 
been  made  to  assume  a  prominence  wholly  unwar- 
ranted by  a  full  and  fair  study  of  the  facts.  To 
insist  that  these  things  to  which  reference  has  been 
made  are  actual  imperfections,  to  look  upon  them 
apart  from  their  own  historic  setting,  and  therefore 
to  speak  of  the  errancy  of  the  Bible,  is  an  unwar- 
ranted and  unhistoric  use  of  words.     These  things 

1  Heb.  1:8. 
86 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


SO  far  from  making  the  book  untrustworthy,  con- 
firm our  faith  in  the  accuracy  of  the  volume.  They 
show  the  peculiar  aroma  of  the  age,  the  flavor  of 
the  period  when  the  books  were  written.  Thou- 
sands of  scholarly  men  who  have  carefully  weighed 
the  alleged  instances  of  discrepancy,  misquotation, 
and  mistake  of  any  sort  whatsoever,  making  due 
allowance  for  the  facts  above  named,  can  honestly 
say  that  not  one  of  these  things  seems  to  be  a  real 
error ;  nor  by  all  of  these  things,  is  their  belief  in 
the  Bible  disturbed.  They  would  unite  in  the 
comprehensive  statement  of  Farrar  :  *' Nor  has  the 
widest  learning  or  acutest  ingenuity  of  skepticism 
ever  pointed  to  one  complete  and  demonstrable 
error  of  fact  or  doctrine  in  the  Old  or  New  Testa- 
ment." 

But  the  thing  to  which  this  accuracy  all  minis- 
ters and  in  which  it  all  culminates  is  the  vital 
thought  of  man's  redemption  by  the  God  of  all 
grace  through  Jesus  Christ.  Schleiermacher  says, 
*' Christianity  alone  is  the  religion  of  redemption." 
It  is  the  accuracy  of  its  aim  which  becomes  so 
conspicuous  to  a  diligent  student  of  the  Bible. 
The  book  is  a  record  of  the  genesis  of  the  idea, 
of  its  steady  development,  and  of  its  future  suc- 
cess. If  the  redemptive  process  is  not  recognized 
the  Bible  is  not  really  seen.  If  that  process  is 
unreal  then  the  book  is  fictitious  and  is  untrust- 
worthy. And  equally  is  it  true  that  if  the  Bible 
is  untrustworthy  the  redemptive  process,  so  far  as 
any  knowledge  we  have  of  it,  is  unreal.  They 
stand  or  fall  together  for  us.  It  might  be  possible 
to  imagine  some  kind  of  a  process  of  human  re- 

87 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

construction  as  going  on  apart  from  anything  we 
do  really  know.  But  a  redemptive  process  with 
redemptive  facts  as  a  series  culminating  at  Calvary, 
is  unknown  apart  from  the  Bible. 

As  we  found  our  "  primitive  convictions  " 
touched  by  a  Bible  that  stands  next  to  them,  so 
our  profoundest  needs  as  sinful  men  stand  close  to 
this  redemption  of  the  Scriptures.  The  primal 
promise  recorded  on  the  earliest  pages  of  the 
Bible  is  just  the  acorn  out  of  which  grows  the 
oak.  The  facts  are  strung  on  this  golden  string. 
*' Other  bibles,"  says  Dr.  Harper  in  the  *' Biblical 
World,"  ''are  not  only  without  the  historic  spirit, 
but  they  lack  above  all  the  religio-historic  spirit  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament  Scriptures."  In  the 
Bible  the  earlier  facts  all  tend  toward  the  Abra- 
hamic  day.  Nor  had  Abraham  been  the  man  he 
was  had  he  not  seen  the  day  of  the  coming  Christ. 
Every  step  of  the  development  of  the  chosen 
family  is  toward  one  goal,  and  it  is  taken  under 
the  guiding  providence  of  God.  Even  mistakes 
are  overruled.  There  comes  the  same  divine  guid- 
ance for  all  the  ancestral  race.  At  length  Moses 
is  born  and  the  law  is  given.  A  national  life  is 
created.  New  ideas  of  a  peculiar  redemption  are 
constantly  introduced.  A  moral  nomenclature  is 
established.  The  precision  of  the  order  is  almost 
mathematical.  The  chain  is  unbroken.  Other 
nations  rise  and  fall.  The  ideas  of  other  peoples 
drop  out  of  existence,  save  as  they  incidentally 
contribute  to  the  one  ruling  idea  of  God  in  con- 
nection with  the  chosen  people. 

And  now — mark  it  carefully — the  record  of  all 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


this  series  is  unique.  Not  only  is  there  a  sense  of 
God  in  the  facts,  but  a  sense  of  God  in  the  story 
of  them.  The  point  of  view  of  the  Bible  is  as 
unique  as  is  the  vital  thought  and  as  is  the  series 
of  facts.  God's  agency  is  everywhere  seen.  So 
far  is  this  carried  that  men  object  to  the  record  in 
our  day  because  God  is  represented  as  doing  so 
much  in  the  Bible.  The  naturalist  asks  why  more 
is  not  ascribed  to  law ;  the  ethnologist  would  have 
more  said  about  the  natural  peculiarities  of  the 
various  races ;  the  secular  historian  would  have 
more  said  about  the  secondary  causes.  The  advo- 
cate of  peace  wonders  that  God  is  so  often  pre- 
sented as  having  to  do  with  war,  and,  from  this 
peculiar  point  of  view,  as  sometimes  its  author. 
This  unique  way  of  ascribing  everything  to  God  is 
unknown  elsewhere.  God  is  in  this  book.  He 
presides.  His  presence  is  seen  equally  in  the 
event,  in  the  point  of  view,  and  in  the  style  of 
the  record.  It  is  God's  book  in  this  peculiar  air 
and  tone  as  is  no  other.  The  conception  is  of 
things  as  seen  through  God's  eye.  The  things 
done  are  ascribed  everywhere  to  him,  even  when 
other  and  evil  agents  are  named  as  having  the  sec- 
ondary place.  The  method  of  seeing  events  is 
equalled  only  by  the  method  of  recording  them. 
The  two  are  one  in  warrant  and  aim.  The  thought 
takes  its  own  divine  way  of  expression.  The  point 
of  view,  alike  in  event  and  narration,  is  the  eye  of 
God.  "God  saw,"  and  "God  said,"  and  "God 
did,"  are  the  forms  after  the  first  verse,  where  we 
read  "God  created."  "Thus  saith  the  Lord"  is 
the    usual    prophetic    phrase.     Just    how  far   the 

89 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


formula,  "Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  covers  the  words 
that  precede  and  succeed  it,  we  may  inquire  farther 
on,  when  we  come  to  inferences  from  our  material 
SO  rapidly  accumulating.  Now  and  here,  the  facts 
of  tone  and  tendency,  shown  in  the  drift  of  the 
book  as  well  as  the  words  themselves,  are  to  be 
noted.  The  story  is  God's  story  when  Moses  and 
Isaiah  and  Daniel  are  speakers.  This  lofty  outlook, 
this  survey,  as  from  a  higher  than  human  view- 
point, this  divine  way  of  conceiving  of  historic 
events  and  of  telling  the  historic  story  is  every- 
where evident.  As  distinctly  as  words  can  make 
it,  the  idea  comes  out  everywhere  of  what  God 
does,  and  what  God  says,  and  of  how  God  rules 
and  overrules.  God  is  in  the  book  as  author  and 
finisher  as  in  no  other. 

But  not  only  is  there  the  progress  of  events  con- 
nected with  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  also  the 
progress  of  the  record  corresponding  thereto,  but 
the  redemptive  process  for  single  souls  is  provided 
for  by  the  book.  Its  record  of  Old  Testament 
and  of  New  Testament  facts  has  had  a  wonderfully 
converting  power.  Spiritual  life  in  a  human  soul 
has  been  germinated  from  a  single  sentence,  from 
a  mere  subsidiary  clause  in  a  verse  of  this  record. 
Some  single  texts  have  a  halo  about  them  in 
Christian  experience,  such  as  the  old  painters  were 
wont  to  throw  about  their  heads  of  Jesus.  This 
work  thus  begun  in  a  human  soul  is  powerfully 
forwarded  by  the  same  volume.  So  that  we  have 
the  parallel  facts  of  a  series  of  vast  world-wide 
events  so  dominated  by  God  and  so  recorded  as  to 
exhibit    the    broad   plan    of    a    redeemed   human 

90 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


nature ;  and  then,  the  equally  certain  facts  of  in- 
dividual redemption  going  on  to  its  culmination, 
through  a  series  of  biblical  events  freshly  applied 
by  the  Holy  Spirit — facts  for  which  we  are  in- 
debted to  the  Bible.  Christianity  is  the  developed 
idea  of  redemption  in  Jesus  Christ  for  a  man  and 
for  mankind. 

III.  Then  too,  the  relation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment to  the  Old  is  peculiar.  It  is  less  that  of 
addition  than  of  expansion  of  view.  In  both  there 
is  one  inspiring  movement. 

From  the  shelves  of  an  old  library  a  student 
takes  down  an  old  schoolbook.  Let  it  be  a  vol- 
ume on  geology.  It  shall  be  the  well-known  text- 
book of  forty  years  ago,  bearing  this  title :  "  Ele- 
ments of  Geology,  by  Edward  Hitchcock,  President 
of  Amherst  College."  It  was  considered  a  most 
remarkable  production  in  its  day.  It  gathered  up 
and  expressed  in  happy  forms  the  facts  and  their 
laws,  as  understood  by  the  best  scholars  of  that 
time.  Its  statements  were  singularly  positive  so 
far  as  they  went,  both  as  regards  geological  facts 
and  geological  doctrines.  And  yet  that  text -book 
reads  strangely  to-day.  The  great  outlines  of 
geology  are  unchanged.  But  a  vast  mass  of  new 
fact  is  now  known,  so  that  the  outline  then  drawn 
is  largely  filled  in  by  new  explorers.  The  general 
theories  of  the  old  text-book  are  not  exactly  false, 
but  they  have  been  modified  and  enlarged,  giving 
us  a  new  science  of  geology.  So  that,  as  it  now 
stands,  no  teacher  in  any  American  college  would 
put  that  book  before  his  students  for  class-room 
use. 

91 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

It  would,  however,  be  quite  possible  to  take  that 
old  treatise  of  half  a  century  ago  and  to  re-edit  it 
carefully  chapter  by  chapter,  to  insert  here  a  new 
paragraph,  to  add  there  an  explanatory  footnote, 
and  then  to  issue  the  book  in  new  form.  The 
book  in  that  case  would  serve  a  double  purpose. 
It  would  give  the  latest  results  of  the  science  and 
be  also  a  history  of  its  development.  For  a  stu- 
dent to  use  the  older  text  apart  from  the  new  would 
be  as  absurd  as  it  would  be  misleading.  It  would 
be  clearly  his  duty  to  read  the  new  editing  into  the 
old  text.  If  the  text-book  of  the  venerable  Presi- 
dent of  Amherst  is  wisely  and  modestly  written, 
there  are  gaps  to  be  filled,  large  spaces  vacant  for 
new  facts ;  theories  tentatively  held  ;  geologic  doc- 
trines so  stated  as  to  admit  of  revision.  For  the 
good  man  never  dreamed  that  noonday  had  come 
for  his  favorite  science.  He  intended  to  leave 
large  room  for  those  who  should  take  up  the  unde- 
cided questions  and  carry  them  on  to  more  certain 
conclusions. 

Even  if  the  learned  author  had  had  the  presci- 
ence to  know  what  we  now  know  about  geology 
he  could  not  have  written  as  a  man  would  write 
to-day.  The  terms  were  not  invented.  The 
classifications  were  not  made.  The  conceptions 
lacked  fit  words  in  which  to  express  themselves. 
And  even  if  that  impossible  thing  could  have  been 
done,  the  strange  book  produced  would  not  have 
been  understood.  Science  cannot  be  forced;  it 
must  grow.  The  old  text-book  has  indeed  a  value. 
The  wise  author  wrote  for  his  own  time,  though 
leaving  wide  spaces  for  those  who  should  succeed 

92 


THE   GATHERED    MATERIAL 


him.  And  the  student  of  to-day,  instead  of  study- 
ing geology  in  the  Hght  of  fifty  years  ago,  must 
read  the  new  editing  into  the  old  text.  Nor  would 
the  case  be  in  the  least  changed  if  the  more  mod- 
ern paragraphs  and  the  extensive  footnotes  were 
separately  printed  under  the  name  of  their  new 
author  and  editor. 

The  supposition  made  about  the  text-book  of 
geology,  in  a  certain  rough  way  illustrates  God's 
plan  in  giving  us  the  great  text-book  of  religion 
which  we  call  the  Bible.  And  the  method  of  the 
giver  is  never  to  be  forgotten  in  the  interpretation 
of  the  Old  Testament.  Except  as  a  matter  of 
curious  interest,  it  is  never  to  be  studied  by  us 
apart  from  the  newer  revelation ;  it  is  never,  under 
any  circumstances,  to  be  interpreted  by  us  apart 
from  the  New  Testament.  In  the  revulsion  from 
the  unintelligent  conception  held  by  some  good 
but  unscholarly  men,  that  because  a  revelation,  it 
is  not  a  growth,  in  the  reaction  against  the  idea  of 
some  plain  Christians  in  former  times,  that  the 
Bible  was  ready-made  in  the  skies  and  let  down 
upon  the  earth,  there  is  great  danger  that  the  op- 
posite extreme  will  be  reached  by  some  scholarly 
men,  and  that  they  will  attempt  to  interpret  the 
Old  Testament  solely  in  its  own  light.  One  ani- 
mated by  a  merely  literary  curiosity  may  well  ask 
what  the  deeds  it  records  would  mean  to  those  who 
saw  them,  and  what  the  words  would  signify  to 
those  who  originally  heard  them.  And  this 
method  of  study  has  a  remote  and  indirect  bear- 
ing upon  the  interpretation  of  the  deed  or  the 
word.      But  when  used   alone,  with   reference  to 

91 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

such  a  book  as  the  Bible,  it  is  a  singularly  defective 
method.  The  error  of  ignorance  which  would 
regard  the  Scriptures  as  a  Chinese  picture  without 
perspective,  is  equaled  only  by  the  error  of  the 
critics  who  would  spoil  the  painting  by  scraping  off 
the  colors  to  analyze  the  paints  used  by  the  painter. 
Let  us  guard  ourselves  against  the  narrowness  of 
unscholarly  men  ;  and  equally,  against  the  dogmat- 
ism of  those  who,  in  their  specialty,  forget  related 
scholarship.  Our  changing  human  methods  which, 
in  each  age,  as  we  feel  their  trend,  are  in  danger 
of  swaying  us  unduly,  are  always  to  be  subordi- 
^  nated  to  God's  methods  of  interpreting  the  older 
Testament  by  the  newer. 

And  because  in  current  discussions  there  is  a 
tendency  in  some  cases  to  deny  the  principle,  in 
other  cases  not  to  give  due  emphasis  to  the  New 
Testament  thought  as  always  to  be  used  in  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  thought  of  the  Old  Testament, 
certain  things  need  among  us  a  fresh  consideration. 

One  of  these  things  is  that  the  Old  Testament 
expects  the  New  Testament  as  its  interpreter. 
The  Old  Testament  is  not  final.  It  is  broader 
than  other  literatures  ;  but  it  is  narrower  than  that 
to  which  it  introduces  us.  To  deny  the  prophetic 
element  in  the  older  Scriptures  is  not  simply  to 
make  them  merely  human,  but  it  is  to  reduce  the 
human  in  them  to  the  lowest  possible  terms. 

Every  historical  writer  of  any  note  is  necessarily, 
in  some  degree  and  about  some  things,  a  prophet. 
He  sets  down  facts  with  their  natural  tendencies. 
He  becomes  prophetic  just  because  he  is  historic 
in  his  methods.     It  is  a  case  in  which  to  look  back 

94 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


truly  one  must  look  forward  wisely.  To  set  down 
facts  with  date  and  place  and  circumstance  is 
enough  to  make  one  an  annalist  but  not  a  historian. 
At  any  one  point  of  the  past,  a  historian  must 
trace  the  trend  which  made  the  next  step  of  ad- 
vancing history  a  possibility.  So  that  to  deny  the 
prophetic  element  altogether,  is  to  deny  the  his- 
toric. There  is  movement  in  the  Old  Testament. 
There  are  far-off  events  to  which  this  whole  crea- 
tion of  Hebrew  literature  moves.  On  the  basis  of 
the  humanly  prophetic  there  is  engrafted  the  ex- 
pectation of  the  supernaturally  prophetic.  That 
something  is  yet  to  come  for  man's  good  is  the 
universal  hope.  When  Plato's  divine  man  appears 
the  golden  ages  will  return.  The  prophet  who 
was  the  prophet  of  man,  becomes  the  prophet  of 
God  in  the  divinely  guided  development  of  Israel. 
The  inspired  facts  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
inspired  order  of  them  demand  an  inspired  record 
of  both  the  fact  and  the  order,  and,  equally,  an  in- 
spired interpreter  of  them.  The  human  inspiration 
in  other  ancient  writings  by  which  they  live  through 
the  ages,  is  itself  a  kind  of  prediction  that  God  will 
use  divine  inspiration  for  exhibiting  these  religious 
facts,  both  common  and  uncommon,  in  their  divine 
ordering,  for  the  instruction  of  men.  All  things 
in  the  Old  Testament,  even  its  history,  look  on- 
ward. They  predict.  They  crave  not  only  fulfill- 
ment, but  its  record  in  some  worthy  way.  The 
Old  Testament  expects  the  New  to  supply  its  gaps, 
to  explain  its  facts,  to  throw  its  moral  light  on 
what  else  were  merely  incident,  to  fill  up  its  out- 
lines, to  enlarge  its  hints,  to  lift  its  national  into 

95 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

moral  history,  to  bring  its  life  and  immortality  out 
into  light.  The  Old  Testament  needs,  claims,  and 
expects  the  New  as  its  interpreter.  Coleridge  has 
told  us  that  no  man  can  understand  the  New  Tes- 
tament but  by  the  Old,  nor  the  Old  Testament 
but  by  the  New. 

The  peculiar  forms  of  the  Old  Testament  litera- 
ture require  that  it  be  read  in  the  light  of  the  New 
Testament.  Take  its  Pentateuch.  It  gives  us  the 
history  of  the  early  world  and  of  the  early  man. 
It  is  not  intended  as  a  record  of  the  experiences  in 
religion  of  these  ancient  worthies.  It  sees  them 
in  their  relations  to  the  early  human  society  and 
to  the  development  of  the  race  as  a  race.  It  is 
more  sociological  than  theological  in  its  cast. 
Genesis,  in  its  trend,  becomes  soon  genealogical. 
It  gives  us  the  history  of  a  family  development ; 
and  all  things  are  seen  as  related  thereto.  It  is 
the  story  of  the  ancestry  of  the  Coming  Man  who 
is  to  undo  the  doings  of  the  first  man.  All  else  is 
incidental.  The  story  of  creation  is  given,  less  to 
instruct  us  in  geology,  and  more  to  show  us  how 
God  prepared  the  earth  for  the  race  of  mankind, 
out  of  which  race  should  spring  the  Man.  The 
incidents  of  early  history  are  held  in  strict  abey- 
ance to  this  plan.  The  early  men  of  the  race  are 
named  simply  to  show  how  they  stand  related  to 
that  which  is  to  come  in  the  wide  scheme  of  things. 
There  is  a  vast  reserve.  The  author,  evidently 
standing  amid  large  material,  omits  more  than  he 
says,  and  holds  himself  with  a  certain  severity  to 
his  great  object  in  writing  his  book.  It  is  the  per- 
fection  of   the  historical  style;    and  it  has  been 

96 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


copied,  perhaps  unconsciously,  by  our  modern  his- 
torians. The  old  "constitutional  history"  of 
Hallam  is  no  longer  written.  In  the  newer  style, 
as  shown  by  Macaulay  and  Greene,  biography 
illustrates  the  underlying  thought  of  the  age.  And 
this  method  is  the  return  to  the  method  of  Moses. 
An  era  is  seen  through  the  eye  of  its  most  promi- 
nent man.  And,  in  turn,  this  style  of  picture- 
writing  demands  of  the  reader  the  sympathetic 
vision.  Since  the  artist  meets  you  only  half-way, 
it  is  demanded  of  you  that  you  supply  what  he 
purposely  omits. 

But  in  a  book  addressed  to  us  not  only  from  the 
human  but  from  the  Divine  mind  as  well,  the  unas- 
sisted man  will  fail  to  meet  alike  the  human  and 
the  divine  purpose.  The  New  Testament,  as  the 
interpreter  of  the  Old,  needs  to  be  in  our  hand  or 
we  miss  much  of  the  meaning.  We  must  not  fail 
to  see  the  common  trend  in  both. 

It  might  be  thought  that  when  we  come  on  to 
Leviticus  and  Numbers,  the  law  books  and  record 
books  of  Israel,  we  could  study  them  solely  in 
their  own  light.  But  it  becomes  plain  that  there 
is  a  reason  for  the  minute  directions  in  some  of 
the  institutions  of  the  civil  and  the  ceremonial 
law.  Their  nearest  meaning  was  civil,  to  a  Jew  of 
that  olden  time.  But  is  the  civil  worth  of  them 
the  whole  worth  to  us  ?  Let  it  be  conceded  that 
the  Mosaic  code  is  the  basis  of  the  science  of  juris- 
prudence. Is  this  all  that  those  laws  can  teach 
us  in  these  Christian  centuries  ?  Let  the  New 
Testament  book  which  we  call  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  make  answer.  There  we  are  shown  that 
G  97 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS   A    TREND 

the  greatest  value  even  of  the  ritual  books,  is  their 
Christian  worth  to  the  Christian  world ;  shown 
also  that  the  ritual  books  are  not  to  be  interpreted 
by  the  meaning  found  in  them  by  those  to  whom, 
in  historical  order,  they  were  first  addressed.  It 
is  the  same  with  the  prophetic  books.  Doubtless 
the  nearest  fulfillment  of  many  prophecies  was 
that  which  touched  the  Hebrew  State  and  the 
surrounding  nations.  But  these  nearest  fulfill- 
ments, which  also  are  to  be  recognized,  by  no 
means  cover  all  the  meaning ;  nor  is  the  worth  of 
them  to  those  Hebrews  their  chief  worth.  That 
they  spoke  to  the  men  of  their  times  is  true ;  but 
that  they  addressed  other  ages  than  their  own  is 
the  broader,  stronger,  larger  fact.  It  was  a  New 
Testament  man,  quoting  an  Old  Testament  prophet, 
who  added,  ''these  things  were  written  for  our 
learning."      It  is  the  annunciation  of  the  trend. 

The  one  sufficient  answer  to  those  who  claim 
that  the  events  recorded  in  Genesis  *'  are  not  his- 
tory in  our  sense  of  the  word  history,  but  only 
generically  and  ideally  true,"  is  the  New  Testa- 
ment view  of  these  Old  Testament  writings.  Let 
this  be  noted,  that  the  agreement  of  the  two  Tes- 
taments, when  the  older  is  seen  in  the  light  of  the 
newer,  their  agreement  as  it  is  seen  not  only  by 
our  eyes,  but  through  the  inspired  eyes  of  apostles 
and  by  the  divine  vision  of  the  Master  himself, 
forbids  a  style  of  criticism  which  vacates  the  Old 
Testament  of  its  facts.  These  Old  Testament 
facts  are  at  one  with  the  New  Testament  facts. 
They  are  the  common  property  of  both  Testa- 
ments.    Nor  is  it  alone  in  the  historical  books  that 

98 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


we  meet  the  peculiar  form  of  literary  and  spiritual 
work  which  demands  the  New  Testament  as  an  in- 
terpreter. The  Psalms  are  to  us  virtually  Chris- 
tian songs,  both  by  what  we  find  in  them  and  by 
what  we  rightly  read  into  them.  We  have,  in  the 
first  chapter  of  Hebrews,  divine  authority  for  read- 
ing Jesus  for  '<  Jehovah,"  the  ''Son  of  God"  for 
"  God "  himself,  in  at  least  one  Psalm.  Farther 
on  in  this  discussion,  we  may  inquire  how  far  the 
one  instance  warrants  us  to  do  the  same  in  any 
other  case  where  the  similar  thought  of  the  psalmist 
can  be  better  expressed  in  terms  of  New  Testa- 
ment usage.  Those  glowing  songs,  in  which  the 
"  Mercy  of  the  Lord"  is  so  exalted,  seem  some- 
times to  ask  us  to  liberate  the  thought  from  its 
former  necessary  restriction,  and  to  solicit  us  to 
use,  instead  of  that  phrase,  the  name  of  the  Christ 
of  God  who  fills  out  the  full  measure  of  the  divine 
mercy.  In  them  all  there  is  the  same  inspiring 
trend. 

In  the  Proverbs  we  have  the  concentrated  and 
portable  wisdom  of  the  ages.  And  where  the 
author  of  that  book  transfuses  them  with  the 
"godliness"  which  stands  in  the  recognition  of 
the  "fear  of  God"  and  the  "wisdom  of  God,"  we 
do  ourselves  harm  if  we  do  not,  in  turn,  complete 
the  process  Solomon  began,  and  transfuse  the 
worldly  wisdom  not  only  with  Godliness  but  with 
Christliness.  For  Solomon  to  refuse  to  add  the 
saving  salt  of  religion,  as  he  knew  it,  to  the 
gathered  sayings  of  the  earlier  ages,  would  have 
been  a  wrong  as  great  as  for  us  to  neglect  to 
read   them   in  the  light   that  shines  for  us  from 

99 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

that  Christ  "who   is  made  unto  us  the  wisdom 
of  God." 

And  this  method  of  interpreting  the  thought  of 
the  Old  Testament  by  that  of  the  New,  is  equally- 
far  on  the  one  hand  from  the  crass  literalism  of 
the  early  Christian  centuries,  and  on  the  other 
from  the  absurd  allegorizing  of  the  Alexandrians. 
The  character  sketches  of  Moses  are  not  to  be  re- 
duced to  mere  object  lessons  on  particular  virtues ; 
nor  yet  regarded  as  a  thin  covering  for  philosoph- 
ical conclusions  that,  once  drawn,  leave  little  need 
for  the  facts  themselves.  The  true  method  insists 
on  the  literalness  of  the  events.  It  insists  that 
the  actual  history  be  not  spiritualized  in  any  such 
way  that  the  facts  be  evaporated  on  the  one  hand, 
nor  yet  on  the  other  be  made  mere  pegs  on  which 
to  hang  any  man's  theological  or  philosophical  con- 
ceits. We  plead  for  the  interpretation  of  thought 
by  thought.  We  insist  that  precisely  the  same 
thought  and  purpose  were  in  the  divine  mind  in 
giving  the  Old  Testament  as  in  giving  the  New ; 
that  the  New  Testament  thought  was  throbbing 
for  expression  in  the  Old  ;  and  that  it  was  uttering 
itself  as  far  as  the  nature  and  purpose  of  the  older 
♦books  and  the  restrictions  of  a  historic  develop- 
Iment  would  permit. 

And  moreover  we  claim  that  God  has  provided 
ifor  us,  in  these  Christian  centuries,  some  better 
'thing  than  was  accorded  to  the  men  of  the  olden 
time,  when  we  come  to  the  interpretation  of  our 
Old  Testament.  And  while  we  neglect  no  side- 
light of  ancient  history,  no  conclusions  justified  by 
philological  and  archaeological  studies,  we  must  not 

lOO 


THE   GATHERED    MATERIAL 


forget  that  all  else  is  inferior  to  the  sunlight  of  the 
gospel,  in  our  search  for  the  meaning  of  the  older 
Scriptures. 

The  Old  Testament  certainly  contains  hints  and 
premonitions  of  the  facts  and  doctrines  of  the  New 
Dispensation.  It  starts  with  the  assumption,  com- 
mon even  before  the  Mosaic  era,  of  a  God  and 
of  a  soul,  each  related  to  the  other  and  both  doing 
moral  work  on  a  high  moral  plane.  The  two  fore- 
*most  nations  of  the  old  civilization  in  the  ante- 
Mosaic  time  both  held  these  doctrines,  as  shown 
by  historic  tablets  and  papyri.  The  fact  that  the 
Mosaic  documents  are  history,  in  our  sense  of  the 
word  history,  may  be  denied  by  some  Hebraists ; 
but  Assyriologists  and  archaeologists  insist  that 
historic  tablets  and  inscriptions,  hundreds  of  years 
older  than  the  Mosaic  era,  are  veritable  history. 
These  ante-Mosaic  authorities  show  that  the  old 
Assyrians  and  Egyptians  believed  in  the  two  fun- 
damental facts  of  an  eternal  God  and  an  immortal 
soul.  The  trend  of  belief  now  is  toward  the 
recognition  of  an  original  monotheism ;  toward  a 
belief  that  subsequently  there  was  an  introduction 
of  local  deities,  and  that  the  older  was  the  purer 
faith. 

In  such  an  atmosphere,  Hebrew  thought,  always 
nimble  among  moral  ideas,  would  be  especially 
active  on  these  themes.  The  Israelites,  if  they 
had  not  brought  these  ideas  with  them  w^hen  they 
came  down  to  Egypt,  must  have  carried  them 
away  when  they  left  that  land.  They  were  the 
commonest  of  ideas  in  the  monarchy  on  the  Nile. 
It  was  impossible   for  Moses,  however  vigorously 

lOI 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

he  should  hold  himself  to  his  historic  purpose,  not 
to  give  any  hint  or  premonition  of  this  universal 
belief  of  the  civilization  of  his  age.  All  words  of 
his  that  bear  on  this  subject  are  to  be  allowed, 
under  these  circumstances,  their  utmost  weight ; 
and  interpretation  is  to  make  the  most  rather  than 
the  least  of  any  incidental  turns  of  expression,  is 
always  to  favor  the  broader  rather  than  the  nar- 
rower meaning.  Something  more  than  the  mere 
outlines  of  natural  religion  are  to  be  expected  from 
Moses,  writing  in  such  surroundings  and  among  a 
people  bred  amid  such  beliefs.  Shall  we  then  be 
surprised  that  Moses  represents  man  as  mentally 
and  morally  perfect  at  the  outset,  with  all  which 
such  a  presentation  carries  with  it  ?  We  must  not 
think  of  Adam  as  an  overgrown  boy,  laboriously 
gaining  religious  knowledge  as  do  our  children. 
He  was  created  in  "righteousness  and  true  holi- 
ness," /.  e.,  in  holy  knowledge  of  the  truth.  This 
must  have  covered  vastly  more  than  the  knowledge 
of  what  is  popularly  called  natural  religion  or 
natural  theology.  He  must  have  had  not  only  the 
knowledge  of  sin  but  of  redemption  according  to 
the  primal  promise.  Only  a  part  of  this  religious 
revelation  made  to  Adam  needed  to  be  noticed  in 
a  historic  book  like  Genesis.  And  we  have  the 
right  to  infer  that  the  knowledge  in  which  God 
created  man,  mentioned  by  Paul  (Col.  3  :  lo)  as 
the  typical  fact  of  the  renewing  of  regeneration, 
involved  vastly  more  than  is  actually  recorded. 
This  knowledge  comes  out  naturally  in  the  state- 
ments concerning  Enoch,  the  seventh  son,  who 
would  be  expected,  according  to   ancient  ideas,  to 

I02 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


be  the  inheritor  alike  of  Adam's  genius  for  religion 
and  of  Adam's  positive  religious  teaching.  And 
Enoch,  with  a  glance  at  the  impending  deluge, 
looks  forward  to  the  coming  of  the  Lord  as  the 
Judge  with  his  saints,  who  is  to  "execute  judgment 
upon  all."  He  thus  sees  in  grand  outline  the 
Christian  dispensation,  even  as  Abraham  afterward 
saw  a  special  event  in  it ;  the  day  of  Christ's 
earthly  glory.  Bengel's  comprehensive  note  is : 
"  The  first  coming  of  Christ  was  foretold  to  Adam, 
the  second  to  Enoch.  Enoch  looked  forward 
beyond  the  deluge.  For  he  speaks  respecting  all 
men  and  not  to  the  antediluvians  only.  It  is  the 
earliest  prophecy  concerning  the  coming  of  the 
Judge."  When  Enoch  is  translated,  the  act 
becomes  not  only  a  palpable  proof  of  immortality, 
but  an  endorsement  of  his  elemental  Christian 
teaching.  The  light  thus  flecks  the  morning 
dawn  and  touches  soon  the  great  mountain  tops, 
as  these  men  receive  it  and  reflect  it  upon  success- 
ive generations.  The  light  shines  onward  from 
Adam  and  Enoch  to  the  time  of  Noah,  "  preacher 
of  righteousness."  It  shines  on  still  from  the  ark 
on  Ararat,  type  of  salvation  in  all  centuries,  to 
Sinai ;  and  from  Sinai  on  to  the  end  of  the  wander- 
ing, when  Joshua  was  visited  by  the  **  Captain  of 
the  Lord's  host  " — a  startling  theophany. 

When  the  national  history  begins  in  Palestine, 
the  public  record  may  say  little  of  the  personal 
religious  belief  of  the  new  actors  on  the  scene, 
for  that  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  records.  But 
from  many  a  turn  of  the  sentence  in  "  Kings"  and 
*' Chronicles"   you   may  see  what   is   everywhere 

103 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS   A    TREND 

assumed.  The  whole  long  history  of  Israel  is  set 
to  this  one  musical  idea.  Beginning  with  the 
organ  tone  of  Moses'  ninetieth  Psalm,  tremulous 
with  the  harp-strings  of  David,  and  continued  in 
the  passionate  strains  of  Canticles  and  the  great 
trumpet  peals  of  the  post-exilic  psalmists  and 
prophets,  we  hear  the  grand  chorus  as  it  grows 
stronger  and  stronger,  unto  the  full  hallelujah  of 
rapt  expectancy  and  holy  fulfillment. 

It  is  generally  thought  that  the  subject  of  the 
future  life  is  left  in  a  very  vague  and  unsatisfactory 
state  by  the  writers  of  the  Old  Testament.  But 
men  will  always  differ  on  the  question  of  what 
should  be  expected  on  this  subject  from  men  in 
their  position,  writing  with  their  purposes,  and 
compelled  by  their  place  in  a  progressive  scheme 
of  revelation,  to  give  only  hints  and  intimations 
which  subsequent  writers  were  to  enlarge  and  en- 
rich. It  is  not  easy  to  put  one's  self  in  their 
place,  and  to  estimate  just  how  far  there  should  be 
concealment  and  how  far  revelation.  Persons  with 
little  power  of  historic  perspective  complain 
greatly  of -this  supposed  lack,  and  wonder  not  a 
little,  that  while  all  the  great  nations  of  antiquity 
had  so  much  to  say  about  the  future  life,  the  He- 
brews had  so  little.  Perhaps  the  trouble  is  in  the 
vision  of  the  beholder.  He  may  not  be  able  to 
shade  his  eyes  from  our  superabounding  light  suf- 
ficiently to  form  a  correct  estimate  of  their  posi- 
tion. But  some  students  of  the  Old  Testament  do 
not  so  feel.  And  they  think  that  as  much  promi- 
nence is  given  to  the  subject  of  the  future  life  as, 
under    the    circumstances,     could    be    expected. 

104 


THE   GATHERED    MATERIAL 


They  name  the  frequent  references  to  Sheol. 
They  are  not  willing  that  the  words  "  gathered  to 
his  people  "  should  refer  only  to  bodily  burial. 
They  take  Job's  confession  to  be,  not  indeed  a  full 
proof-text  of  the  resurrection,  but  an  expression  of 
confidence  that,  in  another  world,  if  not  in  this, 
God  will  vindicate  him,  thus  assuming  rather 
than  declaring  the  future  life — a  method  of  proof 
even  stronger  under  certain  circumstances  than 
more  positive  declarations.  They  cite  the  six- 
teenth Psalm  in  which  there  is  the  same  confident 
assumption  of  "  rest  in  hope,"  in  any  world. 
Stronger  still  is  the  seventy-third  Psalm — a  psalm 
which  expects  to  see  the  glory  in  the  heavens 
where  God  abides.  They  cite  the  thirty-second, 
the  forty-sixth,  and  the  ninety-first  Psalms  as  im- 
possible utterances  for  one  who  does  not  believe  in 
a  future  state.  They  cite  also  the  four  distinct 
utterances  in  the  prophetic  books  about  the  resur- 
rection. And  the  fact  that  two  of  them,  Hosea  6 
and  Ezek.  37,  are  used  allegorically  of  the  nation,  is 
among  the  best  proofs  that  all  men  knew  and  be- 
lieved in  the  doctrine  of  a  bodily  resurrection, 
from  which  such  graphic  figures  were  derived ; 
while  Isaiah's  direct  declarations,  "  Thy  dead  shall 
live  ;  my  dead  body  shall  rise,"  would  seem  to 
leave  nothing  wanting  as  to  Hebrew  belief 
(Isa.  26  :  19).  The  poetic  form  is  thought  by 
some  to  be  stronger  than  any  prose  statement,  as 
a  proof  of  the  universal  acceptance  of  the  resur- 
rection idea  among  the  Hebrews. 

But  even  if  these' utterances  are  not  given  their 
full  weight,  and  if  it  be  claimed  that,  taken  alone, 

105 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

they  do  not  satisfy,  this  is  certain,  that  they  mean 
something  ;  that  they  are  contributions  toward  an 
end.  Nor  are  they  ever  to  be  taken  alone.  The 
doctrine  of  another  life  in  the  Old  Testament  ex- 
pects the  larger  unfoldings  of  the  new  dispensa- 
tion. From  that  other  life  is  to  come  the  Christ. 
When  he  comes,  it  is  fit  that  the  shadows  shall 
flee,  that  the  hope  shall  be  changed  to  fruition. 
Meantime  hints  and  premonitions  must  do  their 
work.  The  Messianic  revelation  is  that  for  which 
all  else  waits.  '^  Life  and  immortality  are  brought 
to  light"  in  him.  Beautiful  is  the  figure  and 
strong  is  the  thought.  Life  and  immortality  are  a 
treasure  hidden  in  the  recesses  of  some  deep, 
dark  cave.  These  are  jewels  that  only  a  few  ex- 
plorers have  found.  These  few  explorers  never 
saw  the  gems  except  by  dim  torchlight.  Men 
have  come  to  believe  that,  in  this  cavern,  these 
gems  abide  the  finding.  At  some  time  they  will 
be  seized  upon  and  all  will  see  them.  Jesus 
Christ  has  gone  within.  He  has  explored  the 
cavern.  He  has  brought  out  the  jewels  which 
were  believed  to  be  there,  and  he  has  held  them 
up  in  the  sunlight  for  all  men  to  see.  ''  He  hath 
brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  in  the  gospel." 
We  may  also  look  back  a  moment  to  the 
time  when  the  redeeming  idea  began  to  exhibit 
itself.  It  was  at  the  hour  of  the  primal  promise, 
"  the  protevangelium,  or  the  First  Gospel,"  as  Co- 
nant  calls  it.  But  this  earliest  promise  is  only  the 
seed  of  things.  It  gets  itself  enlarged.  As  full 
a  gospel  as  we  should  expect  at  its  time,  it  grows 
in  force  and  breadth.     The  successive  writers  of 

io6 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


the  Old  Testament  continually  read  into  the  primal 
promise  their  better  meanings.  In  their  use  of 
this  primal  promise,  they  instruct  us  how  to  use 
our  better  gospel  light.  They  read  into  it  con- 
stantly from  their  own  broader  views,  as  they  come 
on  in  the  world's  history.  And  so  they  authorize 
us  to  deal  with  their  deliverances  as  they  dealt 
with  those  older  than  their  own  time.  See  how 
grandly  they  do  this  thing.  They  begin  with  the 
words  :  "  The  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the 
serpent's  head,"  i.  e.,  the  hurter  is  to  be  hurt  by  a 
stronger  hurter,  and  the  race  delivered  from  the 
hurting.  The  idea  broadens.  At  length  the  world 
is  ready  for  the  idea  of  redemption  through  a  re- 
deemer as  shown  in  the  Mosaic  rites.  The  world 
waits,  but  the  one  for  whom  it  waits  is  to  be  a 
prophet.  At  length  he  is  to  be  the  "  Captain  of  our 
salvation,"  i.  e.,  a  Saviour ;  at  length  he  is  the  King ; 
farther  on  he  is  the  ''Messiah"  ;  ''The  Lord  our 
righteousness";  "The  Prince  of  peace";  "The 
Root  and  Offspring,"  z.  e.,  the  sire  and  son  "of 
David."  The  redemptive  idea,  the  saving  idea,  is 
ever  conspicuous ;  and  to  it  all  other  ideas  come 
at  length  to  do  obeisance.  Each  inspired  man 
reads  into  the  growing  conception  the  thought  of 
his  own  time ;  each  illumines  it  with  the  light  God 
grants  to  his  age ;  each  gives  it  vigor,  breadth, 
beauty,  and  glory.  It  is  the  one  redemptive 
thought  expanded,  enriched,  adorned.  Why  should 
we  fail  to  do  with  our  New  Testament  light  what 
those  men  did  in  their  dimmer  day — interpret  the 
older  by  the  newer  thought,  and  find  more  and 
more,  in  that  older  revelation,  of  the  truth  always 

107 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

there,  but  always  waiting  to  be  discerned  by  the 
better  New  Testament  vision. 

This  tendency  is  everywhere  revealed.  We  see 
it  in  the  inspiring  thought  that  gives  the  two-fold 
book  a  single  aim.  And  we  see  it  as  well  in  the 
very  unique  structure  of  the  two  Testaments  as 
they  act  and  interact,  as  they  look  forward  and 
backward,  as  they  assist  each  other  and  expound 
each  other.  There  is  organized  thought  and  organ- 
ized form.  There  is  majesty  in  the  march  of  the 
volume.  God  is  in  its  every  part.  The  inspired 
thought  reaches  even  the  form.  You  could  not 
have  a  speech  by  Daniel  Webster,  even  at  a  cattle 
show,  that  did  not  betray  the  Websterian  trend. 
Not  a  sentence  but  has  the  Websterian  march  and 
manner.  The  statesman  was  everywhere  manifest 
to  those  who  had  known  his  great  political  ideas 
and  who  could  feel  the  power  of  those  majestic 
words  in  which  he  clothed  his  thought.  So,  if 
larger  matters  may  be  illustrated  by  smaller,  it  is 
in  some  sense  with  God's  ever-present  thought  of 
human  redemption.  It  was  clear  in  his  own  mind 
and  it  sought  as  clear  expression  back  at  the 
time  of  the  primal  promise  as  it  did  when  in  the 
ripe  hour  Christ  came  to  our  world. 

But  it  could  not  be  fully  expressed  in  that  age. 
The  thought  knew  no  change.  It  was  just  as  strong 
in  Abraham's  attempted  offering  of  Isaac,  as  strong 
in  every  ordained  rite  of  the  temple  service.  It 
throbbed  in  every  psalm,  and  strove  for  fuller  utter- 
ance in  every  prophecy.  The  thought  is  always 
present  if  we  but  had  eyes  to  see  it,  if  there  were 
but   light  in  which  mxn  could   use  their  clearer 

io8 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


Christian  vision.  We  ought  to  do  it.  We  can  in- 
deed, when  studying  any  historical  book  of  the 
Bible  as  mere  history,  shut  off  for  the  hour  the 
Christian  light,  as  men  in  daytime  descend  into 
a  well  to  see  from  its  depths  the  stars  of  the  upper 
sky.  But  to  do  that  is  not  to  interpret  such  a  book 
as  the  Bible.  That  is  to  use  it  as  a  merely  literary 
volume,  to  use  it  for  a  kind  of  class-room  exercise  m 
history,  as  one  would  use  Macaulay  or  Prescott.  But 
the  divine  heart-beat  is  the  great  thing  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  interpretation  is  the  liberation  of  the 
divine  thought  from  its  restriction.  It  can  be  done, 
not  by  our  going  back  behind  it,  but  by  our  going 
on  to  the  better  expression  as  furnished  in  the 
gospel  dispensation.  The  thought  is  there  though 
partially  veiled.  It  is  ours  to  discover  it  and 
bring  it  from  the  age  of  the  shadow  into  the  age 
of  the  sunlight. 

What  is  said  of  the  Mosaic  ceremonial  is  just  as 
true  of  the  Mosaic  and  the  post-Mosaic  facts, 
''which  things  were  a  figure  of  the  true."  The 
old  facts  needed  the  new  facts  for  their  comple- 
ment and  the  old  record  needs  the  new  for  its 
interpretation.  And  so  it  is  our  duty  to  read 
into  the  older  story  the  thoughts  of  the  better 
time.  The  inspiring  Spirit  is  the  same  in  both 
volumes.  Nearly  eighty  times  the  Holy  Spirit, 
under  the  name  ''Spirit  of  the  Lord"  or  "my 
Spirit "  is  named  in  the  Old  Testament.  He  is 
also  the  promised  Agent  to  lead  into  all  truth  in 
the  composition  of  the  New  Testament.  In  the 
Old  Testament  he  is  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  in  the 
New  he  is  the  Spirit  of  fulfillment. 

109 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

The  peculiar  interpretations  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment given  by  Christ  and  his  apostles  are  very 
significant.  There  are  a  few  instances  of  direct 
quotation  by  word.  There  are  more  instances  of 
quotation  by  fact.  It  is  noteworthy  that  our  Lord 
so  quotes  as  to  endorse  incidentally  those  very  facts 
about  which  such  questionings  have  been  made  in 
our  own  century.  The  story  of  the  temptation  in 
Eden,  the  story  of  the  serpent  raised  in  the  wilder- 
ness, and  the  story  of  Jonah — the  three  incidents 
most  controverted — are  not  only  named,  but  are 
struck  through  and  through,  in  our  Lord's  dis- 
course, with  gospel  thought.  He  uses  them  not  as 
foreign  illustrations,  as  one  might  quote  from  the 
incidents  of  Greek  and  Roman  history,  but  they 
are  for  him  a  luminous  outline  gospel  of  the  olden 
time,  which'  those  men  he  addressed  should  have 
seen  and  so  by  this  vision  of  them  should  have 
been  prepared  for  his  gospel.  The  constant  thought 
of  Christ  is  that  the  Jews  ought  to  have  known 
these  things  in  their  moral  meaning,  so  as  to  have 
been  ready  to  receive  him.  The  reproach  is  that 
they  did  not  see  the  divine  side  of  these  earthly 
things ;  how  then  could  they  see  the  heavenly 
things  he  came  to  disclose  ?  They  would  not  read 
into  the  older  part  of  their  revelation  the  truths  of 
their  newer  prophets.  They  saw  only  ordinary 
history  where  they  should  have  seen  religious  truth. 
They  saw  bare  fact  where  they  should  have  seen 
living  and  inspiring  revelation.  Christ's  whole 
nomenclature,  as  well  as  his  mode  of  thought,  is 
founded  on  the  Old  Testament. 

The  process  is  always  a  reading  of  New  Tes- 

IIO 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


tament  ideas  into  Hebrew  fact,  the  enlargement 
of  Hebrew  thought  into  Christian  conception. 
Take  the  fall  of  man  as  given  in  Genesis.  In 
twelve  well-known  passages  Paul  shows  what  that 
fact  means  as  seen  in  the  light  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  is  even  more  impossible  in  Paul's  case 
than  in  Christ's,  to  understand  a  merely  literary 
allusion  in  which  the  old  facts  serve  to  illustrate  a 
truth.  For  while  Jesus  sees  facts  as  moral  truths 
incarnated,  Paul  founds  arguments  upon  the  facts. 
He  sees  in  them  parts  of  a  comprehensive  system 
of  things.  So  that  were  the  Old  Testament  story 
of  the  fall  not  a  fact,  or  not  one  in  a  great  series 
of  facts,  it  would  make  Paul's  arguments  not 
merely  fallacious,  but  puerile.  It  is  certain  that 
the  author  of  the  book  of  Hebrews  reads  New 
Testament  ideas  into  the  Old. 

It  may  indeed  be  urged  that  he  is  dealing  with 
symbols,  a  method  of  dealing  warranted  in  inter- 
preting the  symbols  of  the  Mosaic  ritual.  But  the 
method  of  interpreting  thought  by  thought,  rather 
than  the  symbolic  method,  is  also  used  by  the 
writer  of  the  Hebrews  when  he  leaves  the  ritual 
law  and  comes  to  Hebrew  history  and  Hebrew 
heroes.  In  such  cases  he  also  adopts  the  method 
of  the  other  New  Testament  writers. 

And  this  way  of  using  the  Bible  sheds  some- 
what of  light  on  the  vexed  question  of  the  quota- 
tions in  the  New  Testament  from  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures.  Sometimes  the  quotation  is  direct, 
word  for  word.  Sometimes  it  would  seem  to  be 
incorrect,  except  for  a  word  or  two  in  the  verse 
quoted.      But  when  we  recall  the  Hebrew  style  of 

III 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

thinking,  which  is  largely  by  parallelisms,  some- 
what of  the  difficulty  departs.  Parallels  in 
thought,  parallels  in  trend,  parallels  in  related 
theme,  are  named.  The  argument  for  the  Messiah- 
ship  of  Jesus  as  one  who  fulfills  an  ancient  proph- 
ecy by  the  act  of  coming  up  out  of  Egypt  is 
not  one  at  first  especially  evident  to  Occidental 
minds.  But  the  two  facts  of  Israel's  departure 
from  Egypt  and  Mary's  departure  from  Egypt  with 
her  child  Jesus  in  her  arms  are  exactly  that  kind 
of  parallelism  which  an  Oriental  would  regard  as 
an  argument  in  Christ's  favor.  Similar  trends  in 
fact  show  to  him  unity  of  thought.  They  are 
overlapping  circles.  They  are  a  part  of  one  series. 
They  are  links  of  one  chain.  Is  then  such  an 
argument  a  logical  fallacy  ?  Yes ;  if  there  is  no 
common  trend  of  thought  in  the  two  Testaments, 
and  if  the  idea  of  the  New  Testament  is  not  there 
in  the  Old  Testament  waiting  to  be  brought  out 
in  the  better  light.  Interpret  by  symbol,  interpret 
by  ordinary  forms  of  quotation,  and  the  logic  does 
not  always  appear.  Interpret  by  thought — thought 
equally  in  both,  but  in  one  restricted  in  expression 
and  longing  for  liberation  and  utterance — and  the 
logic  is  of  the  highest  order. 

To  this  method  of  interpretation  there  is  one 
objection.  It  seems  at  first  to  open  the  door  to 
all  fanciful  interpreters.  They  can  read  into  the 
written  word  any  conceit  that  rules  an  unregulated 
mind.  But  this  objection  confounds  things  that 
differ.  There  are  rites  in  the  ritual  law  that  de- 
mand the  symbolical  method,  and  the  restriction  of 
that  method  to  these  symbols  is  clearly  demanded. 

112 


THE    GATHERED    MATERIAL 


Imaginative  men  have  gone  through  the  whole 
Old  Testament  with  their  symbolic  interpretation, 
to  the  disgust  of  all  sober  minds.  The  method 
which  is  now  defended  is  exactly  the  opposite  of 
that.  It  gives  no  room  for  lawless  fancy.  It  uses 
simply  the  search-light  of  New  Testament  thought 
and  so  finds  everywhere  the  rudiments  of  New 
Testament  ideas.  Its  process  is  that  of  seeking 
the  everywhere-present,  unifying  thought.  It  has 
the  vital  eye.  It  sees  through  connections.  It 
finds  the  whole  book  dominated  by  one  divine 
trend.  It  discerns  Christ  in  all  the  sacred  volume. 
Pentateuch  and  Prophecy,  Psalm,  Gospel  and 
Epistle,  are  all  witnesses  to  him.  The  unique 
book,  in  its  growth  as  a  revelation,  in  its  spirit  and 
its  methods  as  an  inspiration,  is  not  only  a  book  of 
human  genius,  but  of  heavenly  origin. 


H  113 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    EXPERIENTIAL    ARGUMENT 

In  a  former  chapter  the  inductive  method  of  in- 
vestigation was  described  as  one  method,  though 

by  no  means  the  only  one,  of  in- 

bection  1.  vestiffatins:  the  subject  of  inspi- 

The  Contents  of        ^-  ^      Afr  ^    ^-i;^ 

4.1.    nx.  •  4.-  ration.     We  come  now  to  that 

the  Christian  ,,     ,    ,        -i    j  i      o-     Tin 

Experience         ™«*°d  described  by  Sir  Wil- 

ham  Hamilton,  when  he  says, 

"  Experimental  knowledge  is  given  us  by  experience 

and  observation  and  is  not  obtained  as  the  result  of 

inference    or   reasoning."     Jovans  says,   ''  Let  us 

investigate  these  instincts  of  the  human  mind  by 

which  man  is  led  to  work  as  if    the  approval  of  a 

Higher   Being  were  the  aim  of  life.     Phenomena 

demand  explanation.     Of  the  scientific  method,  the 

first   law  is  that  whatever  phenomenon   is,   is.  .  . 

We  must  ignore  no  existence  whatever.     Are  we 

to  record  other  phenomena  and  pass  over  this  .-*  " 

If  on  some  day  when   the  sun  does  not  shine,  it 

were  required  of  us  to  prove  by  what  we  see  that 

the  sun  really  exists,  we  should  turn  at  once  to  the 

world  of  nature  and  see  what  the  sun  has  done  on 

other  days  when  it  shone  on  the  world.     We  might 

take  some  bright  flower,  all  the  hues  of  which  are 

just  so  much   concentrated  sunlight ;    and   if  we 

could  first  give  it  sensibility  and  then  a  voice,  it 

114 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL    ARGUMENT 


would  tell  us  whence  all  its  colors  came.  It  would 
be  possible  to  find  out  the  fact  of  a  sun — to  dis- 
cover some  of  its  qualities,  some  of  its  potencies, 
some  of  its  activities.  In  like  manner,  it  is  the 
virtue  of  the  experimental  method  that  it  will  ex- 
amine spiritual  results ;  that  it  proposes  to  see 
what  there  is  in  the  contents  of  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness that  testifies  to  the  reality  of  this 
alleged  inspiration  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 

The  experimental  method  in  physics  proceeds  by 
tests  upon  physical  material.  The  experimental 
method  in  all  matters  of  morals  proceeds  by  tests 
upon  spiritual  material.  If  God  is  Father,  man 
has  in  the  faculties  of  sonship  that  which  must 
reflect  the  Father's  methods  in  any  inspiration. 
The  one  must  be  the  counterpart  of  the  other. 
The  "mind  of  the  Spirit"  will  be,  in  some  meas- 
ure, reproduced  in  the  mind  of  the  spiritual  man. 
In  the  flower  you  can  read  the  sun.  In  the  natural 
faculty  you  can  read  something  of  spiritual  truth. 
But  when  this  natural  faculty  becomes  illuminated 
by  the  **  Spirit  of  God,"  the  reading  is  more  dis- 
tinct. The  spiritual  man  will  know  the  things  of 
the  Spirit  of  God;  for  they  are  spiritually  dis- 
cerned. Not  that  the  mirror  is  perfect.  But  to  a 
certain  extent  and  in  its  own  way,  it  is  a  trust- 
worthy reflector.  The  contents  of  the  Christian 
consciousness  must  reflect  the  consciousness  of 
God,  to  a  degree,  on  any  moral  matter ;  and  espe- 
cially on  this  matter  of  divine  inspiration.  True,  the 
mirror  is  far  from  flawless.  In  some  cases  it  is 
sadly  blurred.  But  if  God's  restoring  grace  shall 
come  to  any  man's  soul,  the  imperfections  in  part 

115 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

at  least  will  be  removed,  and  man's  soul,  like  man's 
reason,  will  be,  within  its  own  sphere,  a  proper 
subject  for  our  study. 

We  use  this  consciousness,  also,  as  we  use  the  rea- 
soning powers  which,  though  not  perfect  as  instru- 
ments, are  of  inestimable  value  in  this  discussion. 
We  take  the  method  of  induction,  "which,"  says 
Mill,  ''  is  the  operation  of  discovering  and  proving 
general  propositions."  In  like  manner  we  may  use 
the  methods  of  ''experimental  inquiry,"  so  loudly 
praised  by  Hamilton.  In  any  single  method  of 
studying  so  large  a  question,  there  are  limitations. 
We  may  overstep  the  line  of  sobriety  whatever  our 
method.  But  guarding,  ourselves  against  these 
dangers  as  best  we  may,  let  us  examine  by  this 
method  some  of  these  reflected  rays  of  divine  in- 
spiration as  they  are  given  us  in  Christian  con- 
sciousness. 

It  will  be  necessary  that  we  do  not  regard  these 
testimonies  of  experimental  religion  as  primarily 
coming  from  man  himself.  There  is  a  secondary 
rainbow  in  the  sky  after  the  shower,  which  depends 
solely  on  the  primary  bow.  It  comes  when  the 
primary  bow  comes,  stays  while  it  stays,  goes  when 
it  goes.  This  secondary  bow  has  no  existence  in 
itself  apart  from  the  primary  bow.  We  are  search- 
ing not  for  some  human  faculty  which  is  a  sun,  but 
for  some  capacity  to  receive  the  beams  of  the  true 
sun  and  reflect  them.  A  candle  is  not  necessarily 
lighted.  It  is  simply  capable  of  being  set  on  fire 
and  of  giving  out  light.  Jesus  said  of  himself, 
"I  am  come  a  light  into  the  world."  To  his  dis- 
ciples he  said,  ''Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world." 

ii6 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL   ARGUMENT 


Those  men  were  not  original  lights.  They  were 
simply  capable  of  being  touched  into  light  by  him- 
self. He  is  *'the  true  light  that  lighteth  every 
man  that  cometh  into  the  world  "  who  will  receive 
him.  To  think  of  all  men  as  inspired  is  to  think 
of  inspiration  as  the  prolific  source  of  unnumbered 
errors.  Capacity  to  give  light  is  not  light  itself. 
Besides,  this  light  is  always  represented  as  com- 
municated. Whatever  of  light  from  personal 
faculty  God  gives  to  the  natural  man  is  not  to  be 
considered  here  ;  for  the  inspiration  of  which  we 
are  inquiring  is  not  that  of  man's  inspiration,  but 
that  of  God's  inspiration.  And  our  whole  investi- 
gation is  concerning  the  latter  inspiration  as  be- 
stowed upon  the  men  who  have  given  us  the  books 
of  the  Bible. 

And  yet  the  strange  claim  that,  because  of  the 
divine  immanence,  all  men  are  divinely  inspired, 
even  though  not  accepted,  is  not  without  its  worth 
to  us.  It  shows  that  the  belief  that  somebody  is 
divinely  illuminated  is  still  an  article  of  human 
faith.  Men  believe  that  the  light  is  over  and 
above  that  of  mere  human  faculty.  The  admission 
is  a  fair  starting  point  for  an  argument.  It  shows 
that  there  are  preparation,  anticipation,  and  ex- 
pectation of  inspiration.  The  experimental  method 
begins  by  recognizing  this  foregleam  in  the 
eastern  sky.  When  to  capacity  for  inspiration  in 
man  is  added  this  innate  expectation,  the  way  is 
clear  for  looking  about  us  and  asking  who  and 
where  are  these  specially  inspired  men.  Here  is  a 
prophecy.  Somewhere,  not  far  away,  must  dwell 
the  prophet.       Says   Fairbairn,  in  his  "  Place  of 

117 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

Christ  in  Modern  Thought  "  :  "  The  idea  of  a  writ- 
ten revelation  may  be  said  to  be  logically  involved 
in  the  notion  of  a  living  God.  Speech  is  natural 
to  spirit.  If  God  speaks  it  will  be  through  a 
written  revelation ;  and  this  does  not  simply  mean 
a  store-house  of  the  best  thought  of  the  best 
minds."  Men  not  distinctively  religious  thinkers 
admit  the  possibility  of  a  revelation  from  God 
containing  truth  which  otherwise  could  not  be 
known.  In  such  a  case,  where  a  revelation  from 
God  is  so  much  needed,  the  possibility  becomes  a 
probability.  It  even  advances  to  a  warranted  an- 
ticipation. And  we  ask  instinctively,  where  is  this 
book  that  we  are  authorized  to  expect  ?  There  is 
a  legitimate  outreach  and  uplift  of  waiting  hands 
to  receive  the  volume.  In  some  material  way,  as 
well  as  by  the  direct  impact  of  spirit  on  spirit, 
men  have  expected  God  to  reveal  himself.  The 
prophet  has  a  roll.  The  sayings  of  the  book  are 
sealed.  The  sign-manual  of  God  is  expected  and 
is  bestowed. 

There  are  men  who  have  had  the  inspired  con- 
sciousness. That  some  have  pretended  thereto 
who  were  either  deceived  or  deceivers  is  only  a 
testimony  to  the  breadth  and  strength  of  the  in- 
nate conviction  that  God  somehow,  at  some  times, 
and  in  some  ways,  speaks  to  men.  Just  what  this 
inspired  consciousness  is  none  of  us  can  know 
since  none  of  us  have  experienced  it ;  nor  do  we 
need  to  know  it.  The  nearest  possible  approach 
for  us  to  it,  is  in  those  exalted  moments  when 
spiritual  souls  are  given  to  see  into  the  depth  and 
glory  of  some  passages  of  the  divine  word.     It  is 

ii8 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL   ARGUMENT 


soul  meeting  soul  experimentally.  We  begin  to 
see  as  Moses  and  David  and  Peter  and  John  and 
Paul  saw  the  truth  they  were  told  to  give  to  the 
world.  In  those  hours  these  words  of  the  Scrip- 
ture are  spirit  and  life.  They  carry  with  them 
their  own  evidence.  If  there  were  any  way  of 
collecting  all  these  correspondences  between  the 
word  as  written  and  the  word  as  experienced  in  its 
unfoldings,  would  there  be  a  single  spiritual  dec- 
laration of  the  Bible  that  remained  unverified  ? 
Each  spiritual  soul  has  had  a  few  of  these  revela- 
tions of  spiritual  insight  into  the  inspired  word. 

And  here  comes  out  the  remarkable  fact  that  a 
very  considerable  part  of  the  Bible  is  itself  experi- 
mental. It  consists  of  the  record  of  the  effects  of 
truth  upon  the  mind  and  conscience  and  heart  of 
inspired  men.  You  get,  here  and  there,  the  in- 
spired norm  of  truth  as  it  appeared  to  God  him- 
self ;  but,  more  frequently,  we  have  the  reflection 
of  this  inspired  norm  upon  the  mind  and  heart  of 
the  writer.  As,  for  instance,  in  the  Ten  Command- 
ments you  have  God's  own  thought — the  purest 
truth  ;  and  in  the  Psalms  and  Prophecies  you  have 
the  experimental  echo  of  it  on  the  minds  of  the 
psalmists  and  the  prophets.  The  record  of  both 
forms  of  inspiration  is  equally  inspired.  But  the 
question  always  arises  as  to  the  stress  to  be  given 
to  each.  Both  are  sure  enough  to  be  depended 
on  as  inspired  truth.  But  truths  are  relative  in 
importance.  It  is  the  same  with  inspired  facts. 
You  have  the  atonement  on  the  cross — a  central 
event  in  the  moral  universe  ;  and  you  have  also  on 
record   the    inspired    impression    which    the    fact 

119 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

made  upon  the  mind  and  the  heart  of  Paul ;  the 
inspired  reasonings  in  which  he  indulged  in  view 
of  the  fact  of  divine  redemption.  But  the  fact 
itself  must  always  be  larger  than  any  reasonings 
upon  it ;  for  it  has  applications  far  wider  than  any 
reasonings  can  reach.  And  while  the  reasonings 
are  as  really  inspired  as  is  the  fact,  the  inspired 
fact  is  of  higher  grade  than  any  inspired  reason- 
ings about  it  can  possibly  be.  So  that  there  are 
ranks  and  ranges  of  inspiration  in  God's  word. 
There  are  truths  that  are  divine  norms.  The  Ten 
Commandments  are  such.  They  are  normal  to  all 
the  civil  and  ritual  institutions  elsewhere  and  after- 
ward established.  The  twentieth  of  Exodus  gives 
us  those  "Ten  Immortal  Words."  The  subse- 
quent chapters  give  us  the  ceremonial  law.  The 
record  is  just  as  much  inspired  in  the  one  case  as 
in  the  other.  But  how  different  the  revelation  in 
its  contents  and  worth.  In  one,  the  unchanging 
moral  law ;  in  the  other,  the  transient  ordinance 
now  a  mere  matter  of  human  history.  The  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  about  the  new  birth  is  the  norm  of 
the  new  gospel  kingdom.  But  Paul's  epistles  ad- 
dressed to  the  men  who  have  experienced  this  new 
birth,  show  the  experimental  side  of  the  same 
normal  truth.  In  this  case  the  inspiration  secures 
the  perfect  record  of  an  inspired  thought  gener- 
ated in  a  human  soul  in  view  of  the  normal  state- 
ment. And  the  measure  of  the  statement  is  neces- 
sarily broader  in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other. 
But  the  human  experience,  instead  of  being  a 
source  of  weakness,  is  so  saturated  and  guided,  so 
touched  and  so  sanctified, — in  one  word,  is  so  in- 

I20 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL   ARGUMENT 


spired, — that  it  is  made  a  grand  source  of  strength 
and  a  sure  word  of  God's  sending  and  endorse- 
ment. This  experimental  rehgion,  found  every- 
where in  the  Bible,  running  through  its  history 
which  is  largely  biography,  as  well  as  its  didactic 
portions,  is  one  reason  for  the  hold  of  the  book  on 
spiritual  souls.  It  voices  their  feeling.  It  fur- 
nishes them  with  the  very  words  for  their  prayer 
and  their  song.  It  writes  for  them  their  creed.  It 
gives  wings  to  their  hope.  It  endears  to  them  the 
whole  volume.  For  while  the  experience  of  a  man 
to-day  would  not,  all  alone,  verify  a  historic  fact, 
such  as  the  raising  of  the  serpent  in  the  wilder- 
ness, it  would  incline  one  to  accept  the  fact  as 
harmonious  with  the  whole  trend  of  a  divine  re- 
demption. Not  that  a  fact  can  be  proved  alone  by 
feeling.  But  the  sympathetic  soul  finds  it  more 
easy  to  believe  the  evidence  obtained  by  the  his- 
toric method,  because  of  the  moral  meaning  of  the 
alleged  fact.  Through  the  whole  Bible,  fact  and 
doctrine  and  experience  are  so  thoroughly  inter- 
woven that,  like  the  seamless  robe  of  Jesus,  sepa- 
ration into  parts  is  impossible.  They  are  one. 
This  warp  must  have  that  woof  to  make  up  the 
one  unique  fabric. 

And  thus  it  comes  about  that  many  Christians, 
finding  by  their  personal  faith  in  some  special 
promise  of  Christ  that  they  receive  special  spir- 
itual blessing,  feel  persuaded  that  this  one  promise 
is  connected  with  the  whole  contents  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. They  have  tested  the  word  in  the  only  way 
in  which  they  are  capable  of  testing  it.  They 
have  not  the  historic  knowledge  to  judge  of  evi- 

121 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED   AS    A   TREND 

dences  open  to  other  men  more  fortunately  situated. 
They  have  proved  what  they  were  capable  of  prov- 
ing ;  and  their  reasoning  is  that  these  promises, 
involving  as  they  do  the  essential  facts  of  the 
biblical  story,  have  become  experimentally  true. 
These  are  the  evidences  which  to  them  are  the 
most  satisfactory.  The  spiritual  reason  has  its 
place  as  well  as  the  logical.  The  heart  has  its 
evidences  as  well  as  the  head.  Its  processes 
differ,  but  its  conclusions  are  as  valid.  It  were 
better  that  the  intellectual  method  should  be  used 
as  well  as  the  experimental.  But  for  untold  mil- 
lions of  men,  good  judges  if  allowed  their  own 
methods  of  getting  at  results  on  all  moral  as  well 
as  on  all  religious  questions,  this  experimental 
method  must  always  have  large  prominence.  It 
was  that  proposed  by  Jesus  himself.  He  says 
that  if  any  man  wills  to  do  his  will  he  shall  know 
of  the  doctrine.  And  all  these  men  not  only 
admit,  but  earnestly  claim  some  sort  of  inspiration 
for  the  Bible.  They  rest  in  it  as  in  no  other  book. 
They  quote  it  as  the  one  infallible  rule  of  faith  and 
duty.  They  give  it  instinctively  the  place  of  an 
inspired  volume.  No  man,  though  using  the  most 
logical  processes,  can  afford  to  ignore  this  great 
spiritual  fact  of  the  experience  of  untold  millions 
of  the  human  race.  To  attempt  to  account  for  it 
by  traditional  belief  is  absurd.  To  trace  it  to 
education  is  equally  so.  Thousands  of  these  men 
had  put  off  all  the  influences  of  early  education 
and  lived  godless  lives.  But  they  were  met  by  the 
truth  of  the  gospel,  and  changed  in  all  their  mode 
of  thought  and  feeling.     There  was  a  power  in 

122 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL    ARGUMENT 


the  book  that  did  this  thing.  They  are  certain 
that  the  book  has  God's  seal  of  inspiration  upon  it. 
And  all  this  is  true  because  of  the  underlying 
trend  in  the  volume  itself.  Its  own  unity  is  se- 
cured by  the  inspiring  Spirit  that  runs  through  it. 
The  trend  is  one,  and  it  is  everywhere.  It  is 
found  in  all  biography  and  history,  all  psalm  and 
proverb,  all  prophecy  and  epistle.  More  distinct 
than  the  localism  that  betokens  the  special  age  of 
the  writer,  is  the  universality  of  the  great  thought 
that  throbs  and  thrills.  There  is  beginning,  mid- 
dle, and  end.  The  path  never  turns  aside.  The 
facts  never  get  out  of  their  place  in  the  series. 
The  peculiar  "making  for  an  end"  is  never  want- 
ing which  secures  the  dependence  and  interdepen- 
dence of  the  single  parts ;  each  is  for  the  other 
and  all  make  for  one  grand  goal.  And  so  the  logic 
of  Christian  inference  which  finds  one  set  of  facts  in- 
volved in  another,  and  which,  by  the  vital  eye,  sees 
correlative  and  agreeing  truth,  and  through  sym- 
pathetic affiliation  makes  the  Bible  one  book,  has 
due  warrant  in  this  special  tendency  everywhere 
seen.     It  gives  room  for  Christian  confidence. 

It  is  sometimes  urged  that  the  argument  for  the 
authenticity  and  inspiration  of  the  Bible  which  is 
drawn  from  the  experience  of 
Christians,  while  it  may  suffice    „,   Section  II. 
for  them,  is  without  weight  to    The  Worth  of  this 
^i_  1-1-  i.  4-1-  •    r-u  '  Experience  as 

those  who  have  not  this  Chris-        ^. „^«„* 

„  .  •    .  1    .        an  Argument 
tian  consciousness.      But  is  that 

so  ?     Here  is   a  vast   mass  of    testimony.      It   is 
drawn  from  the  consciousness  of  thousands  whose 

123 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

testimony  on  any  other  subject  would  be  entitled 
to  credence.  This  testimony  is  of  intellectual 
worth  to  the  men  who  have  not  had  the  experience 
themselves.  Thousands  have  not  had  experience 
in  recovery  from  a  given  disease.  They  have  not 
been  cured  by  a  given  specific.  But  there  is  a 
vast  mass  of  testimony  as  to  the  effect  of  aconite 
and  of  quinine  and  of  nux  vomica  as  drugs,  and  of 
the  benefit,  under  certain  conditions,  of  stimulants. 
Medical  men,  on  the  basis  of  this  testimony,  write 
learned  volumes  on  diseases  and  their  treatment. 
They  accept  the  testimony  of  other  men's  ex- 
perience. They  ought  to  do  so.  Experience  of 
others  may  be  in  some  cases  more  valuable  and 
trustworthy  than  one's  own.  You  may  be  a  better 
observer  of  the  course  of  a  fever  in  your  friend 
than  in  yourself.  Testimony  as  to  experience  is 
everywhere  received  and  given  its  place  as  of  more 
or  less  worth.  Nor  can  all  these  long  centuries  of 
Christian  experience  be  ignored  by  those  not  them- 
selves Christians.  It  is  nothing  to  the  point  for 
one  to  say  that  he  has  had  no  such  experience. 
The  negation  of  experience  in  one  man  counts  for 
nothing  as  against  the  positiveness  of  another 
man's  experimental  knowledge  in  religion.  But 
the  man  who  has  not  had  the  experience  himself 
is  bound  to  give  credence  to  the  facts  to  which 
others  testify.  Facts  of  experience  are  as  sub- 
stantial facts  as  we  know,  and  a  man  may  no 
more  set  them  aside  than  he  may  dismiss  the  facts 
of  gravity  in  his  study  of  the  physical  world. 

It  is  sometimes  said  by  way  of  disparagement, 
that  this  experiential  consciousness  is  mere  feeling. 

124 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL   ARGUMENT 


It  is  enough  reply  to  say  that  feeling  is  just  as  real 
a  fact  as  the  existence  of  a  piece  of  granite. 
Feeling  is  one  of  the  potencies  of  life.  Love, 
that  rules  the  world,  is  a  feeling.  It  is  the  grand- 
est, surest,  most  substantial  factor  in  human  con- 
duct. What  a  man  loves  is  the  main  thing  about 
him.  Love  is  character,  bad  or  good.  Think  of 
a  man  attempting  any  analysis  of  human  history 
in  a  nation  or  of  life  in  a  man,  with  no  reference  to 
the  fact  that  love  is  a  power  that  sways  men  pro- 
foundly. At  the  last  analysis  states  of  mind,  such 
as  love  and  hate,  joy  and  sorrow,  hope  and  despair, 
are  the  most  certainly  known  of  all  our  human 
knowledge.  And  so  far  from  a  disparagement,  we 
claim  it  as  one  of  the  surest  of  evidences  that 
Christian  souls,  thrilled  with  love  to  God,  have 
this  experimental  conviction  that  the  Bible  is  an 
inspired  volume.  It  has  been  wrought  in  them 
most  centrally,  has  been  ascertained  by  them  in 
the  depths  of  their  own  being.  And  no  man  of 
a  philosophical  turn  of  mind  can  afford  either  to 
ignore  or  to  neglect  this  vast  amount  of  testimony. 
The  contents  of  the  human  consciousness,  when 
this  consciousness  exists  in  the  purest  form — that 
of  Christian  consciousness — cannot  fail  to  be  of 
immense  importance  to  every  careful  student  of 
the  question  of  inspiration.  These  persons  are 
the  most  competent  of  all  men  to  give  testimony 
on  this  matter.  *'  He  that  is  spiritual  judgeth  all 
things." 

In  questions  of  music  we  give  special  weight  to 
the  opinion  of  the  musician.  In  questions  about 
mathematics  we  consult  the  man  of  mathematical 

125 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

genius  and  attainment.     We  make  use  everywhere 
else  of  specialists.     Why  not  give  here  in  our  in 
vestigation  of  the  spiritual  fact  of  inspiration  an 
especial  importance  to  the  testimony  of  spiritually 
minded  men  ? 

The  experimental  method  alone  may  not  satisfy 
some  investigators.  Like  the  inductive  method, 
it  has  its  limitations  and  its  liabilities  to  mistake, 
when  it  is  employed  exclusively.  But  this  at 
least  is  clear,  that  its  trend,  like  that  of  the  in- 
ductive method,  is  unmistakable.  It  is  a  factor  in 
the  problem.  Certain  minds  are  so  constituted, 
that,  in  regard  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  just 
as  in  regard  to  the  existence  of  God,  the  profound 
inward  conviction  is  that  on  which  they  rely  most 
confidently.  In  these  minds  the  logic  of  the  heart 
is  more  nimble  than  the  logic  of  the  head.  Nor 
are  such  men  necessarily  the  least  intellectual. 
What  mind  more  logical  than  that  of  Paul  ?  When 
a  revelation  by  inspiration  of  God  was  made  to 
him  on  the  way  to  Damascus,  his  heart  yielded  at 
once.  But  he  must  retire  for  three  years  into 
Arabia  to  adjust  his  intellectual  convictions  to  his 
new  moral  feeling.  His  head  must  now  become 
reconciled  to  his  heart.  The  most  logical  mind  of 
the  Scriptures,  he  is  converted  through  the  emo- 
tions, in  view  of  a  divine  intervention.  The 
revelation  of  Christ  to  him  on  the  way  to  Damas- 
cus is  the  first  of  a  series  of  inspirations  for  his 
soul;  and  the  successive  inspirations  of  God's  Holy 
Spirit  are  given  us  in  his  Epistles,  as  he  speaks 
the  words  which  are  freely  given  him  of  God. 

Multitudes  of  young  men  have  been  converted. 

126 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL   ARGUMENT 


Some  of  them  have  failed  to  adjust  the  head  to 
the  heart ;  and  so  have  become  confused  about 
religious  fact  and  doctrine.  They  have  let  the 
certainties  of  individual  experience  stand  in  the 
background,  while  they  have  attempted  to  decide 
on  the  truth  by  mere  logical  processes.  It  is  as 
if  a  man  should  resolutely  close  his  eyes  and  seek 
to  know  all  the  things  about  him  in  the  physical 
world  by  the  sense  of  touch  alone.  Let  him 
not  ignore  the  use  of  his  eyes  because  he  has 
hands.  God  gives  the  various  senses  that  we  may 
correct  and  confirm  the  one  by  the  other.  It  is 
unwise  to  refuse  the  testimony  given  us  by  any  of 
them.  It  were  better  to  secure  everything  we  can 
from  each  as  we  use  them  all. 

And  many,  converted  through  spiritual  processes 
in  early  youth,  have  gone  on  to  verify,  by  subse- 
quent intellectual  processes,  the  great  convictions 
of  a  regenerated  soul.  Like  Paul,  it  has  taken 
time  and  thought  and  study  and  prayer  and  the 
fuller  experiences  of  riper  years.  They  began 
with  only  these  early  and  scanty  experiences  of 
biblical  fact  and  doctrine  and  promise.  But  the 
Bible  has  grown  for  them.  They  now  know  the 
book.  They  have  weighed  the  difficulties,  and 
weighed  also  the  immense  confirmations.  Evi- 
dences have  become  more  evidential.  Related 
studies  have  enlarged  their  knowledge  and  strength- 
ened their  confidence  in  the  divine  inspiration  of 
the  Bible.  The  evidence  accumulates  daily  with 
their  daily  study  and  trust.  They  live  by  faith  in 
Christ  as  he  is  so  singularly  disclosed  in  the  Gos- 
pels and  Epistles.     The  ''  Spirit  beareth  witness  " 

127 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

with  their  spirits.  Other  evidences  they  have  that 
the  book  has  on  it  the  seal  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
They  do  not  disdain  to  receive  any  light  which 
more  modern  studies  bring  to  them.  But  for 
themselves  this  experimental  method  of  investiga- 
tion yields  the  most  satisfaction.  They  know  the 
spiritual  contents  of  the  book. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  so  many  men, 
scholarly  in  some  single  lines  of  biblical  study, 
have  unconsciously  subordinated  the  spiritual  to 
the  intellectual  method  of  investigation  on  this 
subject  of  inspiration,  as  well  as  in  other  and  re- 
lated inquiries.  It  is  easy  to  sneer  at  men  of  less 
technical  leaning ;  to  make  disparaging  statements 
about  the  habit  of  *'  seeing  every  part  of  the  Bible 
as  of  equal  value  and  present-day  importance." 
And  yet  there  is  a  certain  something  behind  even 
the  crudest  ideas  of  inspiration,  which  more  learned 
men,  in  the  interests  of  a  really  scholarly  breadth 
of  view,  would  do  well  to  consider.  The  specialty 
of  any  man's  learning  is  useful  to  us  all.  We 
consider  his  results,  and  compare  them  with  other 
results  not  infrequently  disagreeing  and  antago- 
nistic ;  so  that  their  main  worth  is  not  in  their 
end  but  in  their  trend.  The  fruits  of  any  line  of 
modern  scholarship  we  value  ;  but  scholarship  is 
no  modern  thing.  Inductive  methods  may  have 
been  newly  formulated,  but  they  have  always  been 
used  since  men  began  to  think.  Deductive 
methods  are  not  exclusively  ancient  nor  exclusively 
modern.  And  this  vast  mass  of  experimental  fact, 
accumulating  through  long  ages,  coming  to  us 
through  the  devotional  study  of  sympathetic  souls 

128 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL   ARGUMENT 


who  have  had  a  singular  genius  for  interpreting 
the  main  ideas  of  the  Bible,  ought  to  have  a  large 
place  in  the  appreciation  of  men  of  technical 
learning.  Side  by  side  with  what  they  call  the 
"  critical  results  "  are  to  be  placed  those  which  in 
another  way  are  just  as  critical. 

And  the  man  of  technical  learning  in  any  de- 
partment of  biblical  study  has  need  to-day  to  give 
an  especial  place  to  these  experimental  results. 
For  it  is  obvious  that  much  of  our  modern  study 
is  on  the  humanistic  side  rather  than  on  the 
spiritual  side  of  the  Bible.  We  are  to-day  in- 
quiring concerning  the  near  material  facts.  For 
instance,  we  are  asking  what  were  the  near 
national  events  to  which  Isaiah  refers,  and  those 
which  awake  alike  the  wrath  and  tears  of  Jere- 
miah ?  The  tendency  often  is  to  stop  with  the 
near  and  local.  The  reaction  from  more  devo- 
tional methods  makes  us  put  so  much  emphasis 
on  geographical  and  historic  facts,  that  in  looking 
at  the  human  side  we  are  in  danger  of  forgetting 
that  the  Bible  is  God's  book.  So  much  is  human 
that  it  is  hard  to  see  how  much  is  divine.  The 
one  exclusive  point  of  view  hinders  any  other  in 
our  use  of  this  many-sided  volume.  The  study 
of  the  book  as  human  literature  is  likely  to  make 
any  specialist  a  one-sided  man.  And  so  some  men 
versed  in  more  modern  methods  of  biblical  study 
are  getting  to  see  their  need — if  they  would  be  not 
only  scholarly  but  learned — of  being  also  devout. 
The  verifications  of  the  experimental  method  are 
of  especial  worth  in  counteracting  the  obvious 
danger  of  the  technical  methods  of  biblical  study. 
I  129 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS   A   TREND 

Much  may  be  said,  some  of  it  wise,  some  of  it 
foolish,  about  the  redactors  of  certain  portions  of 
the  Bible ;  but  we  must  not  forget  who  was  the 
Redactor  of  the  whole  of  it.  Let  us  use  it  as  a 
literary  text-book  if  we  will,  but  we  must  not  fail 
to  use  it  also  as  a  spiritual  book.  And  the  usage 
of  long  centuries  of  devout  men,  and  the  fact  that 
they  have  found  spiritual  nutriment  in  portions  of 
the  volume  which  technical  learning  now  decides 
to  have  been  mainly  local  and  national,  may  well 
lead  us  to  examine  our  processes  and  to  correct  them 
by  the  inspiring  thought  of  those  biblical  authors 
whose  broader  vision  saw  the  distant  in  the  near 
at  hand.  It  is  the  far-off  spiritual  meaning  which 
is  the  chief  one  for  us  in  these  later  ages.  In  this 
way  Jesus,  and  after  him  the  apostles,  read  their 
Bible.  The  events  of  Hebrew  history,  though 
long  gone  by,  were  aflame  to  them  with  spiritual 
meaning.  They  read  Jewish  fact  in  the  light  of 
Christian  truth.  They  found  gospel  in  the  Old 
Testament.  And  so  it  has  ever  been  with  that 
long  series  of  men  who,  with  or  without  the  more 
technical  studies  of  the  successive  ages,  have  seen 
God  in  his  word.  Some  one  has  happily  said  that 
"  there  is  a  knowledge  of  the  Bible  as  a  revelation 
about  a  Revelation  which  is  itself  a  revelation." 
And  this  knowledge  is  not  the  exclusive  possession 
of  either  the  learned  or  the  unlearned.  But  the 
scholarly  man,  if  he  would  be  also  a  learned  man, 
must  use  not  only  the  critical  and  the  philosophical, 
but  also  the  experimental  method  in  his  study  of 
the  questions  about  the  inspiration  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. 

130 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL    ARGUMENT 


God's  guidance,  in  the  matter  of  religion,  not 

only  by  the  Bible  but  by  the  additional  gift  of  his 

Holy  Spirit,  is  a  thing  of  such         «    .-      ttt 

gladness  that  some  have  made  ^-    .  ?:      _    '    . 

f,.     ,.          ,    ,,                c   4.u^  Christian  Experi- 

this   **  inward    blcssm^^  oi    the  c/fr. 

^   .  .   ,,       ,       ,            ^,        ,  .  ence  as  a  Saie- 

bpirit     to  be  the  equal,  and  in  g-uard 

some  instances  the  superior,  of 
the  written  word.  But  from  such  views  w^e  are  re- 
strained by  the  Scriptures,  and  also  by  the  better 
experiences  of  Christians  themselves.  Such  men 
are  thrown  back  upon  the  Bible.  They  find  a  re- 
action in  their  own  spiritual  life.  They  begin  to 
shrink  from  the  claim  which  makes  their  own  judg- 
ment, their  own  feeling,  and  so  their  own  words, 
inspired.  If  inspiration,  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
Scriptures  are  inspired,  is  continuous,  then  the  in- 
spirations, keeping  pace  with  the  growing  cen- 
turies, are  more  than  equal  to  those  of  Paul  and 
James  and  John.  The  very  statement  of  the  propo- 
sition alarms,  and  few  dare  apply  to  themselves 
a  theory  which  is  so  obvious  a  mistake.  So  that 
the  correction  of  an  erroneous  theory  is  found  in 
the  unwillingness  of  men  to  apply  it  to  their  own 
sermons  and  hymjus  and  prayers.^  That  there  is 
an  elevation  of  soul,  that  there  is  a  quickened  dis- 
cernment, that  there  is  a  devoutness  of  feeling 
engendered  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  presence  of 
his  own  truth  in  the  sacred  word,  is  not  only  ad- 
mitted but  claimed.  Horton,  in  his  "  Revelation 
and  the  Bible,"  says  :  "The  record  of  Jesus  in  his 
person,  his  ways,  his  words,  is  so  marvelously  and 

^  For  further  remarks  on   "Continuous   Revelation"  see  the 
close  of  Chapter  VI.,  where  it  is  discussed  in  another  connection. 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

uniquely  divine  that  it  has  cast  its  glory  over  its 
recorders."  But  to  account  for  the  inspiration  of 
the  Gospels  by  noting  the  influence  of  Jesus  on 
the  natural  genius  of  his  disciples,  is  to  tell  us 
how  human  inspiration  can  arise,  but  not  how 
divine  inspiration  can  exist.  And,  similarly.  Fair- 
bairn  tells  us  ''that  the  inspiration  of  the  men  who 
read  is  thus  as  integral  an  element  in  the  idea  of 
revelation  as  the  inspiration  of  the  men  who  wrote." 
This  is  to  confuse  the  widely  different  ideas  which 
are  attached,  even  by  these  writers  themselves 
elsewhere  to  the  word  ''inspiration."  We  may 
not  with  any  accuracy,  either  of  thought  or  lan- 
guage, confound  inspiration  with  illumination. 
Philologically  the  words  differ  widely.  Philosoph- 
ically the  conceptions  are  utterly  unlike.  Re- 
ligiously they  are  nearly,  and  sometimes  are  quite, 
antagonistic.  The  inspiration  of  God's  Holy 
Spirit  is  one  thing.  And  quite  another  thing  is 
the  enlightenment  of  man's  mind  to  see  the  glory 
of  the  fact  or  truth  which  God  has  inspired. 

When,  in  his  Yale  Lectures  for  1894,  Mr.  R.  F. 
Horton  raises  the  question,  "  Does  the  word  of  the 
Lord  come  to  his  servants  to-day  as  it  came  to  the 
prophets  of  Israel } "  and  when  he  answers  it  in 
the  affirmative,  is  he  not  using  a  phrase  by  which 
he  confounds  two  very  unlike  things  ?  Evidently 
he  means  that  the  blessings  that  come  to  men 
from  the  enlightening  Spirit  are  just  the  same  in 
kind  as  those  bestowed  on  biblical  writers.  But 
all  the  great  preachers  and  expounders  of  the  word 
shrink  from  making  the  claim  for  themselves.  To 
claim  that  our  human  hymns,  sermons,  and  prayers 

132 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL   ARGUMENT 


are  inspired  in  the  same  sense  and  in  the  same 
way,  though  in  a  less  degree,  as  were  Isaiah's 
prophecies  or  Paul's  epistles,  is  to  do  one  of  two 
things  :  It  is  to  lift  our  human  services  to  an  im- 
mense height,  or  else  to  bring  down  these  prophetic 
and  gospel  and  epistolary  writings  to  a  level,  which 
in  strange  contrast  with  the  tone  they  assume, 
would  make  them  absurdly  presumptuous.  Let 
us  hope,  in  the  interest  of  a  decent  reverence,  the 
latter  is  not  the  purpose.  Let  us  hope  that  the 
religious  experiences  of  Christian  scholars  will 
hinder  them  from  the  former  assumption. 

Just  here  this  experiential  element  becomes,  in 
the  end,  a  saving  restraint.  It  guards  against  put- 
ting into  practice  a  theory,  the  full  consequences 
of  which,  when  it  is  carried  out,  are  too  startling 
for  reverent  men.  Even  Mr.  Horton  shrinks  from 
putting  his  own  discourses  in  the  same  line  as  those 
of  the  inspired  penmen  ;  so  much  better  is  the  in- 
ward spirit  than  the  hasty  theory.  The  truth  is 
that  the  great  multitude  of  eminent  preachers  and 
writers  of  Christendom  never  venture  to  make  the 
claims  for  themselves  which  such  a  theory  re- 
quires. They  have  never  dared  assert,  whatever 
their  theory  of  inspiration,  that  they  were  under 
any  such  immediate  direction  or  inspiration  as 
were  the  biblical  prophets  and  apostles.  They 
never  could  venture  the  assertion  that  what  they 
said  was  of  the  same  authority  as  the  living 
oracles  of  God.  One  does  not  need  argue  the  case 
that  were  this  theory  true  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness of  the  nineteenth  century  would  be  more 
trustworthy  than  the  Bible  itself ;  that  the  unceas- 

^33 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


ing  inspirations  of  the  larger  number  and  the  more 
largely  inspired  believers  of  to-day,  would  have  left 
the  New  Testament  behind  us,  as  a  book  we  had 
outgrown.  That  the  New  Testament  is  a  large 
advance  upon  the  Old  we  all  admit ;  but  this 
newer  Testament,  made  up  of  the  experiences  of 
millions  of  inspired  men,  would  be  a  far  greater 
advance  on  the  whole  Bible  than  anything  we  could 
conceive. 

But  the  great  limitation  upon  excessive  theory 
in  this  direction,  is  that  Christian  experience  still 
bows  itself  reverently  before  the  inspired  writings. 
All  our  devotional  and  our  homiletical  use  of  the 
Bible  goes  on  the  principle  that  the  Bible  is  inspired 
in  a  sense  that  belongs  to  no  other  book.  The 
experimental  method,  if  it  expands  the  view  of 
those  whose  great  danger  is  from  their  literary 
study  of  the  Bible,  tends  also  to  restrain  the 
excesses  of  those  who  are  dazzled  by  a  theory 
that  their  own  hearts  condemn.  And  so  no  man 
can  afford,  in  his  inquiries  about  this  great  matter 
of  inspiration,  to  overlook  this  inward  confirmation, 
this  human  reflection  of  the  Divine  method  of 
teaching  men.  Happily  it  is  especially  satisfactory 
to  the  great  mass  of  Christians  who  have  not 
enjoyed  the  privileges  of  liberal  studies.  But  no 
trained  student  can  be  honest  even  to  his  intel- 
lectual processes,  who  does  not  acknowledge  the 
validity  of  this  great  mass  of  religious  experience. 

And,  more  than  that.  He  has  also  himself  a 
deep  spiritual  nature  which  he  may  not  shrink 
into  littleness  by  refusing  it  indulgence.  The 
soul  cries  out  after  God.      It  must  find  his  light  or 

134 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL   ARGUMENT 


become  bewildered  in  its  honest  efforts  to  escape 
the  moral  darkness  that  threatens  us  all.  The 
vital  eye  is  needed  as  well  as  the  deft  hand. 
The  spiritual  insight  is  more  important  than  the 
clearest  intellect.  It  is  in  God's  light  that  we  are 
to  see  light.  The  sad  mistakes  which  some  men 
have  made  whose  methods  have  been  mainly  intel- 
lectual, are  obvious.  True  breadth  of  view  is  not 
gained  by  ignoring  any  element  in  the  problem  of 
inspiration-.  The  trend,  in  all  our  honest  methods, 
is  unmistakable.  But  the  more  distinctly  we  mark 
it  in  any  one  line,  and  in  all  related  lines,  the 
better.  The  rays  of  light  from  different  points  in 
the  horizon  lead  onward  to  the  one  sun. 

In   the   previous    section   the    reality  and    the 
worth  of  Christian  experience  have  been  discussed. 
We  found  its  contents  to  be  of 
peculiar  value  in  this  questiom    ^haUsTiivolved 
Devout  men,  by  an  mstmct  of     ^^^^^  christian 
their  own  regenerate  souls,  have        Experience 
seized  upon  the  central  thought 
of  the  Bible,  and  so  have  found  it  to  be  to  them 
an  inspiration  from   God.     They  and  their  Bible 
have  come  into  the  most  intimate  fellowship.     Its 
life  and  their  inner  Christian  life  are  at  one.     Not 
only  are  the  facts  in  the  book  related  each  to  the 
other,  but  the  book  and  the  men  who  have  had 
this  Christian  experience  are  related  to  each  other. 
Their  experience  is  its  echo.     This  is  its  comple- 
ment and  confirmation.     It  is  the  other  part  of  the 
one  fact.     The  two  things  are  more  than  parallel. 
They  approach,  for  some  purposes,  to  an  identity. 

135 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS   A   TREND 

This  united  fact  cannot  be  ignored  in  studying 
such  a  question  as  that  of  inspiration.  With 
amazing  agreement,  men  of  all  Christian  centuries 
testify  on  this  subject.  They  may  or  may  not 
formulate  a  theory  of  inspiration.  The  fact  itself 
is  what  they  know.  Many  of  them  are  plain  men. 
They  do  not  care  for  theory.  They  have  found  a 
fact  and  there  they  stand.  They  have  proved,  in 
the  deepest  of  experiences,  that  the  Bible  is 
inspired  of  God.  They  have  a  conviction  on  that 
matter.  They  now  take  it  for  granted,  as  they  do 
the  existence  of  God.  It  is,  like  the  belief  in  him, 
no  more  to  them  a  matter  for  discussion.  They 
now  assume  it  and  find  that  the  assumption  works 
well ;  they  take  it  for  granted,  as  they  do  the  in- 
tegrity of  their  eyesight,  though  they  have  no 
philosophy  of  vision.  They  say  ''  I  see."  That 
ends  all  for  them.  These  are  good,  sound-minded 
men — the  practical  men  for  whom  the  Bible  was 
written,  and  who  are  the  best  judges  of  it  on  this 
and  some  similar  questions. 

The  scholarly  Erasmus  said,  "I  utterly  dissent 
from  those  who  are  unwilling  that  the  sacred 
Scriptures  should  be  read  by  the  unlearned,  trans- 
lated into  their  vulgar  tongues,  as  though  Christ 
had  taught  such  subtleties  that  they  can  scarce  be 
understood  even  by  a  few  theologians."  But  even 
on  the  score  of  a  broad  scholarship  no  investigator 
on  this  and  on  kindred  questions  can  afford  to 
overlook  this  immense  mass  of  ever-accumulating 
testimony  from  these  most  spiritual  souls.  They 
live  and  thrive  upon  it  as  an  inspired  book.  They 
detect  the  sweetness  as  they  rove  over  these  rich 

136 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL    ARGUMENT 


pastures  alive  with  blossoms  out  of  which  honey 
is  made.  These  men  are  in  vital  sympathy  with 
the  book.  They  are  so  only  because  they  find  it 
an  inspiration  of  God.  Let  it  be  granted  that 
they  are  not  infallible  as  men  nor  as  interpreters 
of  special  texts.  Let  it  be  conceded  at  once  that 
a  broader  knowledge  of  lexicons  and  grammars  and 
cognate  history  and  scholarly  exegesis  would  be 
helpful  to  them  ;  that  they  might  have  to  dismiss 
here  and  there  a  proof-text.  But  on  so  vital  a 
thing  as  that  the  substance  of  Scripture  itself  is 
both  revealed  and  inspired  by  God,  they  are 
surely  not  wrong.  They  find  that  its  variety 
responds  to  their  various  moods.  This  cannot  be 
ascribed  to  education  ;  for  some  of  them  had  never 
a  religious  training.  And  out  of  the  number  are 
not  a  few  who,  blessed  with  Christian  parentage 
and  instruction,  had  yet  turned  away  from  parental 
teachings.  But  with  the  earliest  experiences  in 
religion  they  knew  where  to  go.  They  instinc- 
tively  took  up  this  book,  not  curiously,  but  de- 
voutly;  not  to  reason  about  it,  but  to  accept  it. 
The  new  heart  was  the  new  light  in  which  they 
studied  the  volume.  If  their  experience  was  genu- 
ine, and  some  of  them  no  more  doubted  it  than 
their  own  existence,  then  this  book  was  genuine. 
If  the  Spirit  of  God  bore  witness  to  them  that 
they  were  children  of  God,  it  bore  no  less  the  wit- 
ness that  this  Bible  was  inspired  by  the  same 
Spirit  of  God  which  had  converted  their  souls. 
These  men  saw  all  things  in  a  new  light.  The 
book  and  they  understood  each  other.  They 
grasped  intuitively,  with  their  new  spiritual  natures, 

137 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

its  main  ideas.  They  began  its  study  as  from 
within.  They  believed  in  its  inspiration  as  they 
beheved  in  themselves. 

Inductive  reasoning  must  recognize  these  facts. 
It  must  take  these  into  account  as  well  as  man's 
intuitive  moral  beliefs.  Facts  are  facts.  And 
these  facts  about  a  book,  as  seized  upon  by  the 
purest  moral  convictions  we  ever  know  and  as  en- 
dorsed by  the  deepest  part  of  our  nature,  are  so 
much  material  which  warrants  us  in  certain  deduc- 
tions. 

I.  There  is  in  us  a  sense  of  the  moral  fitness 
of  an  inspired  book.  Says  Balfour,  "  We  must 
take  into  view  not  merely  premises  and  their  con- 
clusions, but  needs  and  their  satisfactions."  To 
the  trend  in  the  book  there  must  be  an  answering 
trend  in  spiritual  souls.  To  a  certain  degree  we, 
as  spiritual  men,  are  judges  of  what  such  a  revela- 
tion should  contain.  We  can  decide  whether  the 
book  in  its  grand  outline  facts,  in  the  aim  and  spirit 
of  it,  in  its  power  to  come  home  to  our  wants  as 
men  and  as  sinners,  commends  itself.  About 
many  a  separated  incident  we  should  not  be 
judges ;  but  when  incidents  fall  into  the  great 
plan  of  the  book,  there  is  a  sympathetic  discern- 
ment which  sees  their  moral  meaning,  and  pre- 
pares us  to  receive  them.  We  cannot  infallibly 
decide  by  our  Christian  intuition  what  the  Bible 
should  contain  in  all  its  historic  or  doctrinal  state- 
ments, in  all  its  ethical  and  spiritual  teachings,  in 
all  its  prescribed  duties  or  disclosed  glories.  For 
if  we  might  decide  for  ourselves  by  our  own  sense 
of  right,  by  our  own  inward  convictions  about  each 

138 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL    ARGUMENT 


of  its  Statements  of  fact  or  doctrine,  then  we 
should  need  no  Bible ;  then  it  could  teach  us  noth- 
ing we  do  not  already  know ;  then  our  sense  of 
what  the  Bible  should  be  is  superior  to  anything 
it  could  contain ;  then  the  Bible  would  be  simply 
the  record  of  what  other  good  men  thought,  felt, 
and  believed  about  divine  things ;  then  our  sense 
of  these  things,  as  those  living  in  a  superior  age, 
should  override  the  beliefs  of  those  who  have  gone 
before  us.  And  it  would  also  be  true  that  God 
himself  could  not  give  us  an  inspired  book  telling 
us  of  what  he  alone  knows  which  we  should  be 
bound  to  accept,  since  it  might  transcend  our 
limited  conviction  of  what  such  a  book  should 
contain. 

Nevertheless  this  sense  of  the  fitness  of  an  in- 
spired book  is  a  fact.  And  we  are  competent 
judges  of  its  worth  to  us  as  men  and  as  sinners. 
It  has  a  place,  though  not  the  foremost.  Our 
moral  sense,  if  it  sometimes  would  decide  incor- 
rectly through  lack  of  sufficient  data,  if  its  de- 
cisions would  sometimes  differ  were  all  the  facts 
and  all  the  reasons  for  them  known  to  us,  is  yet 
of  immense  value  on  this  question  of  inspiration. 
And  just  in  proportion  as  this  consciousness  is  in- 
telligently and  devoutly  Christian  its  worth  in- 
creases. We  certainly  are  able  to  form  a  fair  moral 
judgment  on  this  matter.  We  can  decide  upon 
the  general  trend  of  such  a  book  as  the  Bible. 
We  can  get  its  comprehensive  jDlan  before  our 
minds  and  hearts.  We  can  tell  whether  it  finds 
us  at  our  greatest  depths  spiritually.  We  can 
judge  of  how  it  affects  us  to  take  up  the  book  and 

139 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

submit  ourselves  to  it  as  an  inspired  volume.  We 
can  judge  whether  or  not,  when  the  key  fits  ex- 
actly the  intricate  wards  of  the  lock,  the  one  was 
made  for  the  other.  And  here  the  deduction  of 
millions  of  devout  souls  is  justified.  Not  that 
each  man  has  tested  every  passage.  The  convert 
may,  at  the  outset,  have  tested  but  one ;  but  that 
one  stands  involved  with  a  thousand  others.  His 
reasoning  is  that  other  similar  and  connected  and  de- 
pendent portions  are  equally  an  inspiration  of  God. 
Older  Christians  have  proved  other  portions  still; 
and  so  it  comes  about  that  a  broadened  experience 
verifies  all  the  main  promises  of  the  Bible.  But 
these  promises  stand  connected  with  facts.  They 
had  not  existed  apart  from  the  recorded  events. 
The  two  are  one.  A  fact  and  a  doctrine  are  the 
same  thing  differently  stated  ;  and  they  both  in- 
volve a  principle,  out  of  which  comes  a  promise  or 
a  threatening ;  for  a  threatening  is  simply  an  in- 
verted promise.  And  thus  fact,  doctrine,  precept, 
and  promise  are  capable  of  verification  by  Chris- 
tian experience.  "  If  any  man  wills  to  do  his  will, 
he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of 
God."  Trend  in  the  word  finds  trend  in  the  obedi- 
ent soul.  Both  the  soul  and  the  book  are  ''born 
of  the  Spirit."  They  are  mutual  in  their  witness. 
Guidance  responds  to  guidance.  Because  some 
have  gone  too  far  and  placed  the  Spirit  in  their 
own  souls  above  the  word,  or  have  made  it  the 
equal  of  the  word,  let  us  not  think  the  less  of  the 
true  testimony.  Because  some  have  erred  in  the 
other  direction,  and  have  put  the  Spirit,  together 
with  the  word,  in  subjection  to  human  reason,  thus 

140 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL   ARGUMENT 


undervaluing  the  "  Spirit  which  He  hath  given  us," 
let  us  not  reject  the  testimony  of  God  as  furnished 
either  in  the  word  or  in  the  Christian  soul.  The 
''witness  of  the  Spirit"  makes  men  sure  that  they 
are  sons  of  God.  And  by  the  same  token  they 
are  sure  of  the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  the  word. 
The  inspiring  Spirit,  in  giving  the  written  word, 
may  be  doing  a  largely  superior  kind  of  work, 
but  he  is  the  same  Spirit.  He  gave  the  gift  of  a 
special  inspiration  to  some  men  in  the  olden  time. 
Another  and  inferior  gift  may  be  ours,  as  we  seek 
in  humility  to  interpret  the  meaning,  under  his 
guidance,  of  the  sacred  oracles.  But  the  word 
of  God  and  the  regenerating  and  sanctifying  Spirit 
in  the  soul  bear  their  witness  each  to  the  other. 

2.  The  universal  expectation  of  inspiration  finds 
its  satisfaction  in  this  book.  We  do  not  of  our- 
selves know  any  too  much  about  religion.  Men 
have  prayed  to  be  delivered  from  their  religions 
in  moments  of  disgust  with  them  all ;  and  they 
have  longed  for  God  to  speak  out  to  souls  really 
hungry  for  the  truth.  There  is  a  thing  lacking 
until  God  speaks.  There  is  an  appetite  that 
finds  no  supply  until  God  gives  bread  from  heaven. 
There  is  an  eye  made  for  seeing,  but  it  has  no 
satisfaction  for  its  vision  until  it  rests  on  some 
authentic  revelation  from  God.  We  need  a  volume 
of  "  truth  without  any  admixture  of  error,"  a 
final  standard  of  appeal,  a  judge  to  end  the  strife. 
And  millions  have  found  a  satisfaction  alike  for 
brain  and  heart  in  the  word  of  God.  Therein  one 
of  the  most  unmistakable  wants  of  the  race  is  met. 
There  is  a  call  for  some  final  authority  in  religion. 

141 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

It  must  find  satisfaction  in  a  divinely  inspired 
book,  in  this  and  in  all  coming  centuries.  As  the 
final  revelation  of  God  is  in  him  who  is  called  the 
''  Word" — the  living  Word — so  the  record  of  what 
he  was  and  did  and  said  is  fittingly  the  written 
word  of  divine  inspiration.  It  would  be  of  all 
things  most  strange  if  God,  who  has  used  other 
means  of  teaching  men,  should  fail  of  using  a  mode 
of  revelation  which  was  along  the  line  of  the  ex- 
pectation of  mankind. 

And  so,  in  an  age  prolific  in  literature,  the  New 
Testament  made  its  appearance.  It  had  been  pre- 
ceded by  oral  preaching.  The  oral  period  recog- 
nized, as  we  see  from  the  Acts  and  Epistles,  the 
prior  authority  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures 
then  written.  It  expected  a  written  New  Testa- 
ment. Authentic  writing  was  the  method  God  had 
used  in  the  case  of  the  prophets.  In  the  Orient, 
accurate  memorizing  of  the  very  words  of  a  written 
document  is  still  a  method  of  teaching.  It  is  said 
that  public  teachers  of  the  Koran  sometimes  cannot 
read  a  word  of  that  book.  But  they  can  recite, 
and  even  teach,  from  a  memorizing  so  exact  that 
it  equals  the  best  proof-reading  of  to-day.  In  the 
oral  telling  of  the  Christ-story,  had  there  been 
any  variations  the  hearers  would  have  detected 
them  as  quickly  as  we  detect  variations  on  the 
printed  page.  I3ut  this  oral  testimony  needed  to 
be  put  on  record  for  succeeding  generations. 
Matthew's  Gospel  has  been  assigned  to  dates  vary- 
ing from  one  to  fifteen  years — the  time  of  its  gen- 
eral acceptance  of  course  was  years  afterward. 
John's  final  book,  the  Revelation,  is  assigned  by 

142 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL   ARGUMENT 


some  critics  to  a.  d.  6o,  by  some  to  a.  d.  90.  So 
that  within  the  Hfetime  of  the  apostles,  the  New 
Testament  was  completed.  By  no  means  was  the 
selection  of  the  books  for  the  sacred  canon  arbi- 
trary. Fathers,  churches,  and  councils  simply 
said  what  books  were  commonly  received.  The 
subsequent  councils  have  repeated  these  declara- 
tions, just  as  churches  in  Christendom  are  doing 
to-day.  A  book  like  the  New  Testament  was  to 
be  expected  after  the  oral  gospels,  putting  into 
form  the  things  generally  reported  and  believed, 
part  here  and  part  there,  among  the  disciples  of 
the  Lord.  These  eye-witnesses  could  not  alvv^'ays 
live.  So  that  the  thing  to  be  expected  was  that 
before  their  death  the  scattered  incidents  and 
teachings  to  which  they  bore  testimony,  would  be 
given  to  the  world  in  permanent  shape.  God  met 
the  desire  he  had  implanted  by  such  a  book  as  our 
New  Testament.  Early  it  appealed  to  the  knowl- 
edge and  the  conviction  of  the  Christians  then 
living ;  and  each  generation  of  believers  has  met 
and  responded  to  the  same  appeal. 

3.  There  is  also  a  demand  in  us  for  an  inspired 
book,  when  we  remember  the  subjects  on  which  the 
Bible  speaks  to  us.  If  ever  we  are  entitled  to  de- 
mand accuracy  it  is  in  documents  dealing  with  such 
matters  as  these.  So  much  depends  on  the  exact 
statement,  that  some  have  been  ready  to  own  the 
fact  of  inspiration  in  the  case  of  the  more  important 
truths.  They  admit  the  need  of  a  divine  inspira- 
tion in  the  remarkable  prophecies  which  no  unaided 
man  could  have  uttered.  No  ''  natural  genius  for 
religion"  can  account  for  some  of  the  wonderful 

143 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS   A   TREND 

unfoldings  at  once  so  broad  in  their  scope  and  so 
minute  in  their  detail.  Parts  of  the  Scriptures, 
here  and  there,  it  is  allowed,  demand  a  superhuman 
influence  or  they  cannot  be  trustworthy  on  these 
special  subjects.  And  yet  the  other  parts  are  so 
closely  connected  with  these  of  such  admitted  im- 
portance that  it  would  be  very  hard  to  discriminate. 
Is  it  not  better  to  say  that  while  all  of  the  material 
needs  divine  guidance,  some  portions  of  it  would 
seem  to  require  a  larger  measure  of  the  Spirit's  pres- 
ence than  others }  The  conspicuousness  of  divine 
guidance  is  clear  in  some  parts  of  the  book ;  but 
men  would  widely  differ  as  to  what  part  needed 
the  more  careful  oversight.  Prophecy  would  com- 
pete with  History  in  some  minds,  while  Gospel 
would  challenge  Epistle  in  others,  as  most  requir- 
ing the  guiding  hand  of  God  in  the  record.  Each 
man  has  his  varying  mood ;  so  that  he  comes  to 
feel  that  now  this  part  and  now  that  part  of 
the  Scriptures  needs  to  be  inspired.  There  is 
clearly  the  trend  of  demand.  Just  as  clearly  is 
there  the  parallel  trend  in  the  divine  word. 

4.  We  are  warranted,  also,  in  giving  prominence 
to  that  exceeding  affectionateness  wherewith  so 
many  spiritual  Christians  regard  the  Scriptures. 
The  Bible  is  precious  beyond  anything  that  words 
can  express.  It  has  entered  into  their  deepest  life. 
There  is  an  indescribable  tone  and  spirit  in  the 
book,  as  if  one  had  grown  into  the  inner  meaning 
of  many  a  text.  There  is,  besides  that  which 
meets  the  eye,  a  kind  of  holy  aroma  as  of  some 
fragrant  flower.  In  and  through  some  glorified 
text  there  seems  to  be  almost  a  contact  with  the 

144 


THE    EXPERIENTIAL    ARGUMENT 


God  who  gave  it.  This  experience  beggars  words. 
One  must  feel  it  to  know  it.  All  day  long  the 
text  rings  out  its  silver  music.  There  is  an  atmos- 
phere as  from  out  the  other  world.  There  is  a 
mount  of  transfiguration.  The  new  text  is  old,  for 
on  it  are  strung  other  texts  from  far-away  ex- 
periences of  glorified  saints.  And  equally  the  old 
text  is  new ;  on  it  is  the  dew  of  a  summer  morn- 
ing. There  comes  to  be  a  use  of  the  sacred  text 
that  the  merely  verbal  critics  do  not  discern.  A 
verse  rises  out  of  its  obscurity  into  prominence. 
And  just  as  the  New  Testament  writers  sometimes 
quote  a  great  general  principle  as  involved  in  a 
single  local  and  historical  passage,  so  the  spiritual 
soul  finds  by  quick  insight  a  devoutness,  a  spirit- 
uality where  others  saw  only  the  coarse  husk  of  in- 
cidental statement.  And  this  is  because  the  heart 
is  in  sympathy  with  God  in  these  sacred  pages. 
The  soundest  dictates  of  reason,  the  clearest  results 
of  exegetical  study,  often  agree  with  these  deduc- 
tions of  men  receptive  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Such 
do  indeed  snatch  a  glance  more  vital.  They  do 
indeed  touch  a  height  never  else  gained.  They 
get  sometimes  the  choice  fragrance  and  sweetness 
of  the  honey  from  the  flower. 

Now,  would  it  not  be  strange  if  a  converted  head 
and  a  converted  heart  were  far  apart }  Would  it 
not  be  more  singular  if,  when  the  best  reason  and 
deepest  moral  nature  were  both  exercised  on  the 
written  word,  there  should  be  a  failure  of  the  man 
and  the  book  to  correspond  each  with  the  other  ? 
Let  us  accept  the  fact  that  God  gives  the  word  so 
that  man  may  believe  in  it  with  the  faith  of  a  regen- 

K  145 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

erate  heart.  The  seed  is  for  the  soil,  the  soil  is  for 
the  seed.  The  great  Husbandman  has  not  mis- 
judged in  the  one  or  the  other,  nor  yet  in  the  union 
of  both  unto  the  given  end  of  spiritual  harvest- 
ing.    "  My  words  are   spirit  and  life." 


146 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    WARRANTED    DEDUCTIONS 

We  have  seen  in  the  previous  discussion,  that 
the  sacred  Scriptures  stand  in  close  relation  to  the 
"fundamental  truths"  which  are  revealed  in  our 
deepest  nature.  These  "primitive  intuitions" 
about  God,  the  right  and  the  wrong,  the  probation 
of  man,  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  final 
account,  all  need,  as  has  been  shown,  some  outside 
potency  of  restoration  so  as  to  secure  their  own 
right  working.  They  need  to  be  made  clearer  and 
sharper,  so  that  there  is  obviously  required  a  supe- 
rior touch  from  the  one  perfect  Mind,  the  one  per- 
fect Soul  in  the  universe.  These  intuitions  we 
saw  to  be  never  final,  but  always  prophetic.  There 
is  an  expectation  about  them.  They  demand  a 
person  to  liberate  them  from  the  sin  in  us  which 
tends  always  to  hinder  and  thwart  them.  They 
need  in  our  imperfect  state  the  touch  of  a  power 
that  can  give  them  their  old  natural  liberty ;  that 
can  restore  them  to  their  original  force.  Trust- 
worthy as  far  as  they  go,  they  are  at  best  but 
rudimentary.  They  have  no  hint  of  helpfulness 
where  we  have  done  wrong ;  no  inherent  power  to 
restore  the  lost  polarity  of  the  soul.  Rectifica- 
tion these  intuitions  sorely  need  and  potency  they 
must  have.  They  are  beginnings  but  not  endings. 
Their  worth  is  what  they  can  become  when  larger 

147 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

light  and  greater  freedom  and  stronger  impulse 
are  given  them. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Bible  is  in  such  strong 
accord  with  these  *'  original  beliefs  "  that,  in  every 
case,  it  takes  them  up  and  carries  them  on.  There 
is  kindred  between  the  two  ;  they  are  the  inner  and 
the  outer  revelation.  Each  appeals  to  the  other. 
They  work  harmoniously.  The  intuition  needs  the 
new  throb  imparted  by  some  superior  soul  that  can 
corroborate  and  clarify  them.  We  need  some  one 
who  can  rid  us  of  the  confusion  to  which  a  sinful 
soul  in  a  sinful  environment  is  liable  in  the  very  act 
of  using  these  "  primal  truths."  The  mariner  needs 
not  only  to  have  a  correct  compass,  but  to  know  how 
to  use  it.  The  *'  intuitions  "  want  help  so  as  to 
make  themselves  conspicuous  enough  in  this  busy 
world  to  demand  attention  from  our  own  selves. 
The  conscience  has  had  its  polarity  disturbed  and 
requires  rearranging.  The  watch,  an  instrument 
for  detecting  time,  needs  to  be  set  by  standard  time. 
So  the  conscience  is  an  instrument  for  detecting 
the  right,  but  it  needs  adjusting  and  regulating. 
There  is  room  and  there  is  demand  for  revealed 
religion  to  supplement  our  moral  instincts ;  room 
and  need  for  a  new  outside  intervention  in  the 
interests  of  righteousness.  And  if  there  is  a 
series  of  these  interventions,  then  there  is  need 
for  the  record  of  them — such  a  record  as  is 
claimed  for  the  Bible. 

And  further ;  we  have  seen  in  the  discussion  on 
"our  written  Bible,"  that  the  record  of  the  inspired 
events,  and  of  the  series  of  them,  and  of  their 
setting  amid  the  ordinary  events,  shows  one  great 

148 


THE  WARRANTED  DEDUCTIONS 


divine  thought  expressed  in  various  forms  of  Hter- 
ature.  In  and  through  it  all  there  beats  the  heart- 
throb of  a  divine  life.  The  men  who  write  do  so 
freely,  each  after  his  own  fashion,  each  with  the 
water-marks  of  his  own  age,  each  exhibiting  his 
own  personality.  In  these  things,  so  far  from  the 
divine  thought  being  hampered  or  hindered,  there 
is  the  more  conspicuous  inspiration  of  varied 
human  potencies.  Plainly  it  is  better  that  all 
these  peculiarities  of  age  and  authorship  should 
be  used  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  claims  all  gifts 
as  his  own  to  employ  at  will.  He  is  one  Spirit, 
using  each  man  as  he  finds  him  ;  so  that  each 
one's  weaknesses  and  potencies  are  made  contribu- 
tory, though  in  different  ways,  in  the  perfect 
divine  inspiration.  The  book  has  thus  a  unique 
plan  among  the  religious  books  of  the  world. 
History  and  psalm,  proverb  and  prophecy,  Gospel 
and  epistle,  inspired  by  one  thought,  become  the 
"living  oracles,"  the  ''living  word  of  the  living 
God "  which  abideth  forever.  By  some  one  of 
these  forms  of  literature  and  sometimes  by  them 
all,  it  holds  men  in  its  vital  grasp.  Right  through 
the  book  runs  one  appeal.  It  addresses  now  the 
reason  and  now  the  conscience  ;  here  the  emotions 
and  there  the  will.  It  addresses  in  one  part  the 
imagination,  in  another  the  taste  ;  at  one  time  it 
gives  us  artless  narratives,  at  another  it  gives  us 
devout  prophecies.  It  abounds  in  biography.  It 
gathers  up  from  its  best  men  their  excellencies. 
Each  good  man  contributes  at  least  one  virtue. 
And  all  these  separate  "  studies  "  are  assembled  at 
length  in  the  one  great  portraiture  of  Christ  as  he 

149 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

Stands  forth  as  the  Son  of  man,  the  embodiment 
of  all  ideal  manhood. 

But  it  is  as  clear  that  he  is  also  the  only  begot- 
ten Son  of  the  Father.  The  whole  contributing 
thought  of  the  Bible  leads  up  to  him.  And  just 
as  clearly  as  the  book  shows  a  unique  personage, 
so  it  shows  a  unique  mission  which  he  comes  to 
accomplish  among  men.  The  redemptive  thought 
pervades  all.  He  is  here  to  restore  man.  He 
sets  up  a  new  kingdom  of  regenerate  souls.  The 
whole  movement  of  things  has  been  toward  this 
result.  As  a  Saviour  he  is  the  theme  of  all  the 
prophets.  He  is  the  fulfillment  of  all  restorative 
predictions.  He  is  the  end  of  the  old  law  as  a 
dispensation.  He  is  the  meaning  of  all  the  old 
divinely  ordained  redemptive  ritual.  His  death 
and  resurrection  and  the  resulting  gifts  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  are  the  culminating  facts  of  the  Bible. 
Everywhere  through  this  volume  run  these  great 
trends  of  holy  thought,  as  lines  of  magnetic  trend 
find  their  culmination  in  the  poles  of  the  earth. 
The  trend  of  the  record  is  like  that  of  the  facts. 
God  is  in  the  book  peculiarly.  It  is  a  book  alike 
of  human  and  divine  inspiration. 

Let  us  ask,  looking  over  the  volume,  and  gath- 
ering therefrom  its  general  character  and  its  fre- 
quent references   to  the   Holy 
bection  1.  Spirit,  what  we  are  warranted 

Wnat  we  are  War-    ^  ^     ^  ^  r  i  • 

ranted  to  Expect     to  expect  from   him   as  an  m- 
spirmg  Spirit. 
The    presence    to  some    degree    of    the    Holy 
Spirit  must  be  conceded.      He  will  be  likely  to  use 

150 


THE  WARRANTED  DEDUCTIONS 


human  literature  as  his  agency  and  good  men  as 
his  agents  in  providing  for  the  world  appropriate 
literature.  If  it  is  possible  to  leave  to  men  their 
freedom  and  yet  so  to  oversee,  direct,  preserve 
them  from  error  and  guide  them  into  all  truth 
about  the  things  they  write,  then  the  deduction  is 
warranted  that  select  men  not  only  can  be  so 
influenced,  but  will  be  so  influenced.  And  fur- 
ther, it  may  be  said  that  by  this  time  in  the 
world's  history  this  Spirit  has  somewhere  done  this 
work.  Nor  is  there  any  claimant  for  this  to  be 
considered  seriously  save  this  one  of  the  Bible. 
If  we  take  up  the  instances  in  which  in  former  days 
this  Holy  Spirit  has  used  men  in  revelations,  we 
must  admit  the  immense  probability  that  he  can 
give  an  inspired  record  of  those  former  revelations. 
It  is  obvious,  from  the  whole  drift  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, that  the  inspiring  Spirit  has  always  used  the 
recognized  methods  of  successive  ages.  Moses' 
burning  bush  in  the  wilderness  might  mean  little 
now,  though  it  was  the  recognized  method  of  reve- 
lation in  former  days,  as  was  also  Elijah's  altar-fire 
on  Carmel.  The  visions  young  men  were  to  see 
and  the  dreams  old  men  were  to  dream  in  the  Mes- 
siah's day  under  the  Holy  Spirit's  influence  are  no 
more  expected  or  needed  as  a  method  of  revela- 
tion. But  to-day  human  literature  is  the  expected 
method  when  man  would  enlighten  his  fellow-man, 
and  when  God  would  guide  those  who  live  in  these 
centuries.  The  authentic  document,  the  attested 
declaration,  the  carefully  proven  fact  reduced  to 
accurate  statement,  is  the  expected  method  to-day. 
The  Holy  Spirit  as  the  divine  recorder  has  had 

151 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS   A   TREND 

in  mind  the  growing  centuries  which  culminated 
in  our  own.  He  foresaw.  He  began  long  ago.  He 
had  the  testimony  gathered,  confirmed,  recorded. 
All  this,  which  we  are  warranted  to  expect  such 
an  inspiring  Spirit  to  do  through  men  and  for 
men,  is  exactly  done  here  in  the  Bible.  The 
Sinai  tables  of  stone,  the  wisest  thing  as  all  admit 
for  that  day  and  those  circumstances,  have  been 
superseded  by  the  written  volume.  He  who  is  a 
Spirit  and  who  knows  the  human  spirit  in  all  the 
hidden  ways  in  which  it  can  be  influenced,  surely 
would  not  neglect  to  use  the  instrumentality  of 
man  created  in  his  own  image  when  he  would  give 
us  the  ripest  possible  revelation  of  his  will.  And 
it  is  also  reasonable  to  believe  that  when  he 
directed  Moses  to  write  out  certain  things  at  one 
time  on  a  table  of  stone,  and  at  another  to  write 
out  other  things  in  a  book,  he  would  not  desert 
him  in  obeying  either  command.  When  Jeremiah 
is  told  to  speak  certain  words  and  then  to  write 
out  his  oral  utterances  in  a  book,  would  the  guid- 
ance given  him  in  the  one  case  be  denied  him  in 
the  other.?  Thought  and  word  are  so  closely 
related  that  the  one  must  use  the  other,  and  the 
inspiring  Spirit  may  be  expected  to  use  them  both. 
From  what  we  know  of  the  Spirit  in  the  record 
— treating  now  the  record  only  as  ordinary  his- 
tory— we  are  entitled  to  assume  that  God  will  use 
the  thought  and  word  of  free  men  as  far  as  is 
needed  in  giving  to  us  a  volume  like  the  Bible. 
The  immense,  the  overwhelming  probabilities  are 
in  favor  of  the  adoption  of  such  a  course  in  giv- 
ing us  a   book  of  religious  fact  and  doctrine  and 

152 


THE   WARRANTED    DEDUCTIONS 


duty.  The  trend  of  the  book  itself  and  the  cor- 
responding trend  of  expectation  is  toward  an  inspi- 
ration which  separates  the  book  from  all  other  lit- 
erature. 

We  may  also  reason  from  what  we  know  of  the 
men  who  are  thus  inspired    by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

They   are    men    of    integrity. 
Section  II.  They  erive  us  their  statement 

The  Character  of  ^    °.  i    ^    ^i_        i 

j.i±^  ^a,xcLy.^.^,I.  yji.     ^ouccmmg   what   they  knew ; 

they  testify  directly  in  some 
instances  to  their  own  consciousness.  How  far 
should  we  expect  them  to  go  in  claiming  inspi- 
ration ?  How  often  are  they  to  prefix  or  annex  a 
statement  that  God  speaks  through  them  .''  Sup- 
pose that  in  some  cases  there  is  at  the  time  no 
direct  consciousness  of  guidance,  and  that  only 
afterward  do  they  or  their  inspired  brethren 
declare  this  thing.  Even  were  that  the  case  in 
some  instances,  the  inspiration  itself  would  not  be 
vitiated.  So  too,  there  were  evident  reasons  w^hy 
the  proper  name  of  Jehovah  should  not  occur  at 
all  in  a  given  book.  And  yet  the  book  is  full  of 
Jehovah  as  the  providential  Lord.  The  reasons  for 
suppression  at  the  time  of  an  authorship  which 
every  Hebrew  then  living  would  instantly  recog- 
nize, may  be  abundant.  A  writing  is  none  the 
less  accurate  if  the  author  does  not  see  fit  for 
sufficient  personal  or  political  reasons  to  affix  his 
name  at  the  outset.  Authorship  not  avowed  in 
some  cases  for  any  good  reason,  docs  not  hinder 
accuracy,  as  it  does  not  harm  inspiration. 

And  this  is  the  more  evident  where,  as  in  the 

153 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

case  of  a  book  constructed  like  our  Bible,  a  series  of 
succeeding  inspirations  endorses  those  which  pre- 
cede them.  But  where  authorship  is  distinctly 
declared,  how  often  is  it  to  be  reiterated  ?  Surely 
it  should  not  be  expected  before  every  sentence 
or  every  paragraph..  It  would  be  an  absurd  re- 
quirement which  should  demand  that  the  writers 
affix  their  own  names  and  that  of  their  God  to 
every  statement.  Perhaps  as  often  as  in  the  cir- 
cumstances a  fair  criticism  would  require  it,  the 
testimony  alike  to  human  and  divine  authorship 
is  given  us.  Indeed,  the  frequency  of  the  iteration 
in  some  parts  of  the  Scriptures  has  been  the  occa- 
sion of  unfavorable  remark.  The  statement  about 
the  "  word  of  the  Lord  "  as  coming  to  an  individual 
writer,  and  the  formula,  "Thus  saith  the  Lord" 
in  some  parts  of  the  Bible,  are  far  too  frequent  to 
please  the  modern  taste ;  exactly  as  is  the  reitera- 
tion of  the  human  authorship  in  some  of  the  New 
Testament  Epistles.  Would  it  be  legitimate 
criticism  to  assert  that  the  authorship  of  Paul  is 
confined  to  the  opening  words  of  his  epistles  in 
which  he  asserts  himself  the  author  ?  Would  it 
be  an  honest  treatment  to  insist  that  only  the 
next  sentence  after  his  opening  assertion  about 
authorship  is  entitled  to  be  considered  as  the  only 
authentic  statement  in  the  document  ?  And  we 
•may  no  more  demand  this  of  a  statement  in  the 
Old  Testament  histories  and  prophecies  than  in 
the  New  Testament  Gospels  and  Epistles.  Unless 
there  is  some  plain  limitation,  the  claim  of  an 
author  is  over  the  whole  writing.  John's  state- 
ment, "  he  that  saw  bear  record  ;   he  knoweth  that 

154 


THE  WARRANTED  DEDUCTIONS 


he  saith  true,  that  ye  might  believe,"  must  be 
considered  as  covering  all  his  claim.  So  too,  it 
is  with  his  statement  **  this  is  the  disciple  that 
testifieth  these  things."  A  truthful  man  may  assert 
but  he  will  not  always  be  parading  his  own  truth- 
fulness. There  are  statements  elsewhere  about 
God's  being  with  a  man  and  letting  none  of  his 
statements  fall  to  the  ground.  The  commission 
of  a  prophet  or  an  apostle  was  attested  by  his  work, 
as  e.  g.,  that  of  Moses  and  Samuel  and  Paul  and 
John,  by  the  signs  and  wonders  wrought  in  God  and 
addressed  to  their  own  generation,  as  their  written 
words  were  addressed  to  all  generations.  In  many 
cases  declaration  of  authorship  was  needless  in  the 
age  of  the  author.  No  one  else  in  those  circum- 
stances could  have  written  the  book.  In  other 
cases,  however,  the  declaration  of  authorship  was 
explicit.  But  always  character  and  the  accom- 
panying attestation  were  worth  even  more  than 
assertion.  And  so  it  came  about,  as  we  might 
expect,  that  sometimes  we  have  declarative  words, 
and  sometimes  declarative  deeds,  and  sometimes 
both.  That  Moses  received  direct  divine  communi- 
cations is  expressly  asserted.  He  declares  on 
one  occasion  his  divine  mission  in  the  words,  '*  I 
Am  hath  sent  me  unto  you."  Formulas  like 
these  are  unmistakable,  '' The  Lord  said,"  "God 
said,"  "  The  word  of  the  Lord."  Isaiah  uses  direct 
words  in  asserting  his  claim.  "  The  word  of  the 
Lord  "  came  to  Jeremiah  the  prophet,  and  to 
'^Ezekiel,  the  priest"  ;  also  'nhe  vision"  to  Daniel. 
The  whole  series  of  men  known  in  the  biblical 
canon  as   ''  the   prophets "    claim   to   be   divinely 

155 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

employed.  Their  phrases  are  such  as  these,  ''  The 
Lord  gave  the  commandment,"  ''  Write  the  vision." 

These  men  themselves  understood  and  they  made 
others  understand  that  they  were  inspired  of  God. 
How  they  could  have  testified  more  explicitly  to 
their  own  consciousness  of  this  thing  it  is  not 
easy  to  imagine.  And  some  of  these  men  took 
great  pains  to  have  their  writings  preserved.  The 
writing  in  one  case  was  on  tables  of  stone,  laid  up 
in  a  sacred  chest  called  the  ''ark";  and  beside 
these  were  placed,  by  order  of  Moses,  the  ''book 
of  the  law."  Ten  out  of  sixteen  of  the  prophets 
call  their  communications  from  God  ''the  law," 
or  "the  law  of  the  Lord."  The  terms  "statutes 
and  ordinances,"  in  an  age  now  shown  to  be  an 
age  of  written  records,  can  have  but  one  meaning. 
In  the  New  Testament,  Luke's  claim  at  the  outset 
of  his  Gospel,  and  in  the  memorabilia  of  his  Acts, 
are  evidence  on  this  point.  The  promises,  "  It  is 
not  ye  that  speak  but  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  "The 
Holy  Ghost  shall  teach  you  all  things,"  are  some- 
where fulfilled.  Nor  is  there  a  claimant  to  be 
seriously  considered  outside  of  the  New  Testament 
writers.  The  authoritative  words  of  the  council 
at  Jerusalem  are  a  claim  direct  and  positive,  "  It 
seemeth  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and  to  us."  Over 
and  over  again  the  divinely  inspired  consciousness 
of  Paul  utters  itself:  "Which  words  we  speak  not 
in  the  words  which  man's  wisdom  teacheth,  but 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth." 

What  is  asserted  of  written  or  of  spoken 
"words"  is  sometimes  expressed  of  "thoughts," 
and  the  two  are  frequently  interchangeable,  ex- 

156 


THE  WARRANTED  DEDUCTIONS 


actly  as  they  are  in  all  other  literature.  Some- 
times the  word  is  "say,"  sometimes  "teach," 
sometimes  "write."  Occasionally,  as  in  other  lit- 
erature, the  word  chosen  of  the  three  is  selected 
for  some  special  reason,  but  in  other  cases  euphony 
only  seems  to  determine  the  choice.  The  "chief 
apostle"  says  or  writes — he  uses  either  word — 
"the  things  I  write  unto  you  are  the  command- 
ments of  the  Lord,"  and  the  words  of  Paul  are 
echoed  by  Peter  as  he  says,  "the  commandment 
of  us  the  apostles  of  the  Lord";  and  John  re- 
echoes the  words  both  of  Paul  and  Peter,  as  we 
read  "this  is  his  commandment." 

Let  it  be  noted  further  that  inspired  men  in 
their  consciousness  endorse  the  inspiration  of  pre- 
viously inspired  men.  ^  Of  course  they  cannot 
themselves  have  the  original  human  knowledge  of 
their  predecessors  as  to  a  given  fact.  Paul  can- 
not have  personal  consciousness  of  what  Moses 
thought.  But  Paul  may  be  able  to  bear  witness, 
from  his  own  sense  of  the  inspiring  Spirit,  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  record  Moses  has  made.  Cer- 
tain books  were  known  as  the  "  Scriptures  "  in 
Paul's  day.     To  these  books  the  inspiring  Spirit 

^  Some  of  the  instances  in  which  the  New  Testament  claims 
the  inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament  are  :  Matt.  4  :  4-1 1 ;  5  :  17, 
18  ;  15  :  1-14  ;  Mark  7  :  I-9  ;  Matt.  22  :  29-32  ;  Luke  16  :  29- 
31  ;  John  5  :  39-47  ;  MaU.  12  :  I-5  ;  Luke  6  :  3,  4  ;  Matt.  12  : 
41,  42;  Luke  4  :  23-27  ;  Matt.  21  :  15,  16;  22  :  41-46;  Mark 
12  :  35-37  ;  Luke  24  :  44-46  ;  John  10  :  32-39  ;  Matt.  13  :  13- 
15  ;  15  :  7-9  ;  21  :  13  ;  Mark  7  :  6,  7  ;  Luke  4  :  17-21  ;  Matt.  24  : 
15  ;  Mark  13:14;  Matt.  9  :  13  ;  12:7,  39-41  ;  16  :  4  ;  Luke 
17  :  29-32  ;  Matt.  lO  :  35,  36  ;  II  :  lo,  etc.  ;  Luke  7  :  27  ;  Matt. 
II  :  10-12  ;  Mark  9  :  II-13  ;  Matt.  21  :  42,  43  ;  26  :  54-56  ;  Luke 
24  ••  27,  44-46. 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED   AS    A   TREND 

in  Paul  gave  testimony.  He  said,  "  Every  scrip- 
ture inspired  of  God  is  also  profitable,"  "  Holy 
men  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost."  There  is  a  fair  interpretation  of  these 
declarations.  Their  meaning  is  unmistakable. 
They  leave  an  absolute  conviction  of  divine  en- 
dorsement when  he  who  speaks  employs  "  the 
words  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth."  *'God  spake  by 
the  fathers,"  is  the  endorsement  of  the  author  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  when  he  is  comparing 
the  Old  Scripture  with  the  new  teaching  of  the 
divine  Son.  *'The  divers  portions"  and  "the 
divers  manners"  of  the  record  "  in  the  prophets" 
as  declared  in  "  the  old  time  "  are  noted  in  dis- 
tinction from  those  ''spoken  unto  us  by  his  Son," 
who  is  "upholding  all  things  by  the  word  of  his 
power  "  ;  the  potent  "  word  "  of  the  one  is  compared 
with  the  more  potent  "word"  of  the  other.  Paul, 
naming  facts  of  the  olden  time  known  only  from 
the  Mosaic  books,  insists  that  these  things  were 
"given  for  instruction."  Quoting  events  which  are 
recorded  exclusively  in  the  same  Mosaic  books, 
Paul  says  that  "these  things  were  written  for  our 
admonition."  Citing  the  very  words  of  a  single 
prophet,  he  covers  not  only  all  the  "prophets," 
but  all  "the  Law"  as  well  in  the  five  great  record 
books  of  the  Mosaic  time  by  his  broad  declaration, 
"For  whatsoever  things  were  written  aforetime 
were  written  for  our  learning,  that  we  through 
patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures  might  have 
hope." 

Is    it  possible  to  cover  the  ground  of  the  Old 
Testament  inspiration  more  thoroughly  than   by 


THE  WARRANTED  DEDUCTIONS 


such  a  declaration  ?  Remember  how,  as  an  edu- 
cated Hebrew,  he  must  have  used  the  words 
''the  Scriptures."  Remember  that  he  hereby  en- 
dorses not  only  the  general  facts  of  Hebrew  his- 
tory, but  this  history  as  "written,"  using  twice 
that  word  "  written  "  in  the  same  sentence.  Re- 
member too,  that  he  includes  not  only  select 
portions  commending  themselves  to  his  own  sense 
of  fitness  and  personal  taste,  but  covers  the  whole 
series  of  events  ''written"  by  the  most  compre- 
hensive word  he  can  use — the  word  "whatsoever." 
Here  is  fact  endorsed  and  the  record  of  it  endorsed 
through  his  own  utterance,  in  which  he  claimed 
that  he  teaches  what  the  Holy  Ghost  teaches  him. 
He  not  only  quotes  from  David,  Isaiah,  and  Jere- 
miah, but  he  founds  arguments  again  and  again 
on  statements  of  facts  for  which  he  is  indebted 
exclusively  to  the  Mosaic  Scriptures.  "The 
Prophets,"  a  well-known  division  of  the  "  Scrip- 
tures," are  cited  as  authoritative  on  matters  of  fact 
and  faith.  In  the  opening  chapters  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  we  have  the  statement  that  God 
"  spake  to  the  fathers."  And  Peter  tells  us  that 
"  holy  men  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost."  The  seventy-sixth  and  one  hundred  and 
fifth  Psalms  are  founded  on  incidents  in  the  his- 
torical books.  These  cross  references  from  men 
who  say  "the  Lord  said"  to  other  men  who  claim 
of  their  writings  that  "thus  saith  the  Lord"  are 
very  strong  declarations  as  to  the  inspiration  both 
of  the  writers  who  quote  and  of  those  who  are 
quoted  ;  and  so  are  double  proofs  of  the  inspira- 
tion of  our  sacred  books. 

159 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

The  endorsement  of  our  Lord  is  also  very  ex- 
plicit. It  seems  to  many  strange  that  his  words, 
"Moses  gave  you  the  law,"  should  not  settle  the 
question  at  once  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Mosaic 
books  and  of  their  inspiration.  The  question  of 
Moses'  compilation  from  all  existing  materials  and 
of  the  revision  by  subsequent  writers  does  not 
come  into  account.  All  historians  compile,  even 
when  they  rewrite.  The  substantially  Mosaic 
origin  of  the  books  is  not  affected  by  subsequent 
annotations  by  other  inspired  men.  ''Milman's 
Gibbon's  Rome"  is  not  the  less  Gibbon's  own 
work  because  of  additions  and  emendations  made 
by  Milman  after  Gibbon  was  dead.  The  Penta- 
teuch is  Mosaic  in  material  and  in  form  as  well 
as  in  spirit.  And  our  Lord's  endorsement  of  the 
"Law"  which,  in  Christ's  age,  was  certainly  the 
Pentateuch  substantially  as  we  now  have  it,  should 
not  be  looked  upon  as  in  any  way  restricted  to 
the  sentences  he  may  quote.  He  knew  what  the 
words  "the  law  and  the  prophets"  meant  to  his 
contemporaries.  If  his  words  of  reference  are  to 
be  restricted  to  some  particular  saying  of  Moses, 
he  was  bound  as  a  truthful  teacher  to  make  that 
restriction  plain  when  speaking  on  such  a  subject. 
John  says,  quoting  the  popular  Jewish  belief,  "the 
law  was  given  by  Moses."  It  was  a  statement 
having  a  threefold  endorsement :  that  of  Moses, 
that  of  John  speaking  under  the  Holy  Spirit's 
direction,  and  that  of  the  uncontradicted  belief  of 
the  inspired  disciples  of  the  Lord.  The  people 
also  say,  "We  know  that  God  spake  to  Moses." 
Our  Lord  quotes  from  the  Mosaic  books  which  are 

i6o 


THE  WARRANTED  DEDUCTIONS 


ascribed  by  him  and  by  all  the  people  to  Moses. 
He  gives  from  the  Mosaic  story  the  incident  of 
the  uplifting  of  the  serpent — an  endorsement,  in  the 
circumstances,  also  of  facts  occurring  before  the 
recorded  incident — facts  which  alone  made  the  in- 
cident possible.  Such  quotations,  sometimes  direct, 
and  such  citations  sometimes  of  a  fact  which  is  more 
potent  than  mere  words  could  be,  are  very  strong 
endorsements.  For  a  fact  may  involve  a  series  of 
related  facts.  It  may  illuminate  an  age.  It  may 
testify  to  a  whole  mass  of  surrounding  circum- 
stances. It  may  be  central  to  a  whole  system  of 
things.     It  may  incarnate  a  thought. 

And  yet,  for  those  more  impressed  by  direct 
citation,  we  have  our  Lord's  quotation  from  four 
of  the  five  books  of  Moses  specifically,  as  well  as 
from  David,  Isaiah,  Zechariah,  and  Malachi.  He 
uses  the  formula,  "  It  is  written."  He  uses  it  in 
authoritative  quotation  as  to  matters  of  fact  and 
faith.  Paul  quotes  from  the  other  book  of  Moses 
which  our  Lord  had  no  occasion  to  cite. 

It  has  been  held  that  our  Lord's  citations  from 
the  books  of  Moses  show  the  inspiration  of  only 
the  words  cited.  But  those  who  so  hold  fail  to 
tell  us  why  the  particular  words  quoted  are  to  be 
regarded  as  inspired  and  those  in  the  portions 
before  and  after  are  to  be  regarded  as  not  inspired. 
The  words  cited  are  not  in  themselves  more  im- 
portant than  those  not  named,  since  they  are  cited 
only  to  prove  a  point  under  discussion.  There  is 
no  reason  to  doubt  Christ's  endorsement  of  the  in- 
spiration of  the  words  before  and  after  if  there  had 
been  equal  cause  to  quote  them.  His  formula, 
L  i6i 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

'<It  is  written,"  in  the  circumstances,  is  an  en- 
dorsement of  books  in  which  the  words  ''  God 
spake,"  and  *' God  said,"  and  ''thus  saith  the 
Lord,"  are  found  as  often  as,  under  the  conditions 
of  the  authorship,  could  be  expected.  Deed  and 
word  and  document,  quotation  and  repetition  of 
quotation,  would  seem  to  leave  no  room  for  any 
new  form  of  endorsement. 

True  some  very  reverent  and  careful  students 
do  not  see  this.  A  quarter  of  a  century  ago 
statements  were  made  about  the  impossibility  of  a 
Mosaic  authorship  of  the  Pentateuch  on  two 
grounds,  viz.,  the  alleged  lack  of  literary  material 
in  Palestine;  and,  also,  the  alleged  non-existence 
of  even  the  art  of  writing.  These  statements  re- 
peated even  by  Renan,  set  a  considerable  number 
of  scholarly  men  at  work  to  discover  some  subse- 
quent period  when  the  literary  conditions  were 
possible,  and  the  Pentateuch  could  be  made  up 
from  existing  traditions.  The  existence  of  a  He- 
brew literature  from  the  time  of  Joshua  onward 
made  it  impossible  to  find  any  point  where  this 
could  have  been  done  until  about  the  period  of  the 
Exile.  There  was  not  one  shred  of  direct  proof 
that  it  was  actually  done  at  that  time.  But  as  it 
was  done  at  some  time,  that  period  was  considered 
the  most  probable.  Nor  was  it  difficult  when  once 
the  theory  had  been  assumed,  to  find  incidents 
that  seemed  to  fit  into  the  theory.  But  now  it 
appears  increasingly  evident  that  the  two  main 
reasons  for  distrusting  the  Mosaic  period  and  for 
thinking  the  period  after  the  Exile  was  the  bet- 
ter one,  are  both  liable  to  formidable  objection. 

162 


THE    WARRANTED    DEDUCTIONS 


A  Jewish  author  writing  at  the  close  of  the  Exile 
would  never,  unless  all  patriotic  feeling  were  gone, 
have  placed  the  Garden  of  Eden  amid  the  accursed 
waters  of  the  Babylonian  captivity.  He  would 
not  study  the  polytheistic  documents  of  his  hated 
oppressors  to  draw  from  them  a  story  of  creation 
and  palm  it  off  as  a  Hebrew  document,  which  in 
that  case  must  have  been  a  transcript  of  a  heathen 
version  of  the  creative  story.  It  is  now  seen  how 
lacking  in  probability  is  a  theory  which  makes  a 
devout  and  patriotic  Israelitish  priest  account  for 
the  origin  of  his  holy  Sabbath  by  referring  it  to  a 
heathen  tradition  slightly  changed  and  newly  ac- 
commodated to  Hebrew  requirements. 

But  if  the  difficulties  increase  upon  us  with  fresh 
study,  and  we  feel  reasonably  sure  that  the  exilic 
period  was  entirely  inadequate  in  its  surroundings 
to  give  us  these  moral  molds  of  Hebrew  literature, 
what  then  ?  We  must  go  back  again  to  the  Mo- 
saic age  to  find  a  place  which  permits  the  origin 
of  such  a  book  as  the  Pentateuch.  Within  the 
last  few  years  the  spade — some  one  has  called  it 
the  "spade  of  God" — has  shown  us  an  extensive 
literary  civilization  in  ancient  Palestine;  shown  us 
also  that  both  Hebrew  and  Babylonian  writing  ex- 
isted in  abundance;  shown  us  that  in  Egypt  and 
in  the  wilderness  the  Hebrew  story  of  creation 
and  of  the  ante-Mosaic  incidents  of  history  could 
have  been  compiled  and  written  ;  shown  us  too,  the 
peculiar  Oriental  flavor  of  these  documents  as  pe- 
culiar to  that  period  and  that  alone.  But  more 
important  still  is  the  fact  of  an  Oriental  style  of 
historical  record  similarly  exhibited  in  the  cunei- 

163 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED   AS   A   TREND 


form    literature    and  in   the   Pentateuch.     In  his 
book  ''  Genesis  and  Semitic  Traditions,"  Dr.  Davis 
has  shown  that  the  "scrappy  style"  of  Genesis, 
about  which  so  much  has  been  said,  is  precisely 
that  of  papyrus  and  cylinder  which  all  admit  to 
be  veritable   history.     The   "beginnings   again,"^ 
the  "view  as  from  a  different  writer's  standpoint," 
which  have  caused  some  Hebrew  scholars  to  des- 
ignate   the   supposed    authors   by  letters  of   the 
alphabet,  are  shown  to   be  the  ancient  Oriental 
method  of  historic  record.     Dr.  Davis  has  shown 
that  while  the  biblical  method  is  exactly  the  same 
as   the  Babylonian   and   Assyrian   and   Egyptian, 
yet  the  narrative  itself  is  that  of  a  "  Hebrew  tra- 
dition independent  of  and  earlier  than  all  others." 
So  that  what  was  deemed  an  objection  twenty-five 
years  ago,  is  now  regarded  as  a  confirmation  of  the 
Mosaic  authorship  of  these  documents.     And  the 
peculiar   moral    as   well    as    the    unique    literary 
flavor  of   the   documents,  adds    to    the   immense 
probability  of  the  earlier  date.     They  show  that 
monotheism  preceded  polytheism  ;  and  anthropo- 
morphic conceptions  preceded  the  grotesque  and 
impossible  stories  of  heathen  gods  and  goddesses. 
The  Hebrew  idea  is  older,  purer,  loftier.     It  shows 
the  conception  of  man  as  made  in  the  image  of 
God,  and  so  God  as  revealed  in  man. 

It  may  indeed  be  possible  to  hold  to  the  later 
origin  of  our  earlier  Old  Testament  books,  and 
still  retain  a  measure  of  faith  in  their  divine  in- 
spiration. Some  devout  men  actually  do  so.  ^  They 
rightly  protest  against  any  suspicion  of  their  lack 
of  faith  in  the  divine  inspiration  of  the  Pentateuch. 

164 


THE   WARRANTED    DEDUCTIONS 


They  believe  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of  God. 
They  see  a  divine  movement  in  the  facts  as  de- 
veloped and  recorded.  They  insist  that  they  have 
a  right  to  discuss  the  literary  methods  of  the  Bible, 
as  they  have  of  any  other  piece  of  literature. 
They  hold  that  the  Pentateuch,  so  far  as  its  mere 
statement  of  facts  is  concerned,  could  have  been 
inspired  as  well  after  the  Exile  as  before. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  the  needless  waiting 
until  the  Exile  to  give  us  the  story  seems  to  many 
an  imputation  on  the  wisdom  of  God.  Why  pass 
by  the  age  when  other  nations  who  were  not  God's 
people  had  a  story  of  creation  ?  Why  let  a  period 
of  special  literary  activity  go  by  for  an  age  of  ob- 
scurity, before  inspiring  the  records  as  God  had 
inspired  the  facts  ?  Why  let  a  people,  keen  in  the 
moral  interpretation  of  historic  events,  be  left 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  origin  and  meaning 
of  their  Sabbath,  and  so  be  obliged  to  learn  of  a 
seventh  day  as  the  universal  observance  of  primi- 
tive peoples  from  heathen  records  in  Egypt  or 
Babylonia  ?  There  might  be  a  degree  of  inspira- 
tion in  such  a  record.  There  might  be  a  trend 
faintly  discernible.  But  the  stronger  trend  is 
surely  along  the  line  of  the  inspiration  of  such  a 
man  as  Moses,  in  an  age  when  writing  had  become 
advanced  enough  to  be  historic,  and  when  there 
existed  that  peculiar  literary  art  which  could  only 
feebly  and  unsuccessfully  be  imitated  in  the  days 
of  the  Hebrew  Exile.  The  few  objections  escaped 
by  fixing  upon  the  later  date  plunge  us  into  larger 
difficulties  and  immensely  weaken  our  apprehension 
of  a  divine  trend  in  the  record. 

165 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

Very  noticeable   also  is  the  general  course  of 

development  which  shows  itself  on  the  very  face 

.  of    the    biblical    story.      Take 

Section  m.  ^j^g  i^g^  ^f  Qq^      j^  g^^j.^g  .j^ 

The  General  Course  i  .1  1  . 

of  Development  ^^  ^i^PP^  anthropomorphism. 
Ihat  conception  tor  that  age 
is  itself  an  inspiration.  Persons  who  have  not 
acquired  the  art  of  getting  out  of  the  present  cen- 
tury in  their  conception  of  very  ancient  historic 
facts,  sometimes  reproach  the  Bible  for  this  thing ; 
whereas  it  is  happily  its  distinguishing  trait.  It 
begins  on  a  higher  plane  than  any  other  literature. 
Its  delightful  simplicity,  as  it  represents  God  walk- 
ing as  a  man  might  do  in  the  cool  of  the  day  to 
enjoy  the  quiet  after  the  labor  is  over,  God  as 
holding  conversation  with  man  about  what  he  shall 
eat  or  not  eat,  God  as  pleased  or  angry,  God  as 
smelling  a  sweet  savor,  God  as  glad  or  as  repent- 
ing, using  a  mode  of  speech,  so  unlike  morally  to 
the  way  in  which  other  literatures  present  their 
ancient  gods,  is  most  refreshing  and  instructive. 
The  Bible  begins  with  this  likeness  of  God  to  man ; 
and  never,  even  in  its  most  complete  presentations 
of  the  idea  of  God,  does  it  cease  to  use  anthropo- 
morphic conceptions.  They  are  indeed,  as  befits 
the  childhood  of  the  race,  more  simple  in  Genesis. 
It  is  that  fact  which  gives  them  their  charm. 
Genesis  in  its  tone  as  well  as  in  its  form,  is  a  de- 
lightful antiquity.  Here  the  childhood  of  the  race 
matches  the  childhood  of  each  member  of  it.  We 
all  begin  with  conceiving  of  God  as  a  larger  and 
stronger  man.  The  conception  in  after  years  is 
more  complete,  guided  as  it  is  by  the  Bible.     But 

166 


THE  WARRANTED  DEDUCTIONS 


we  all  begin  where  the  Bible  begins.  So  far  is 
the  conception  from  anything  low  or  coarse  that 
it  is  the  very  opposite  of  these.  The  simplicity 
of -the  time  befits  the  simplicity  of  the  idea;  and 
both  are  fitly  set  forth  in  words  of  the  most  charm- 
ing simplicity.  Never  is  the  dignity  lost  ;  it  is  the 
better  presented  by  this  chasteness  and  homeli- 
ness. This  ancient  severity  is  the  exact  opposite 
of  the  florid  literature  of  the  later  Jewish  ages. 

And  this  primitive  idea  expands  easily  and  natu- 
rally, God  becomes  greater.  He  is  more  than  the 
mighty  man  projected.  He  is,  as  the  Bible  pro- 
ceeds, the  living  One,  gathering  into  himself  the 
intensity  of  all  life.  He  is  the  ''I  Am"  God.  He 
becomes  the  object  of  worship.  He  is  the  sole 
Sovereign  who,  as  Lord,  issues  law.  He  takes  on 
moral  qualities,  and  is  holy.  He  becomes  the  God 
of  promise  and  providence.  He  makes  choice  of 
men  to  whom,  in  whom,  and  by  whom,  he  reveals 
himself.  With  this  greater  fullness  of  God  there 
is  greater  adorableness. 

And  presently,  with  this  increased  revelation,  he 
is  also  nearer  to  men.  Idea  is  added  to  idea.  He 
is  going  to  come  yet  closer  to  the  race.  There  are 
yet  more  complete  theophanies.  These  manifesta- 
tions of  God  grow  in  character  as  they  grow  in 
number.  He  is  revealing  himself  in  every  pos- 
sible way  that  the  ages,  in  their  increasing  appre- 
hension, will  permit.  He  is  presently  to  become 
incarnate  in  man,  '*the  man  Christ  Jesus."  The 
movement  goes  steadily  on  from  the  beginning. 
There  is  inspired  order.  The  divine  idea  in  self- 
revelation  is  conspicuous.     It  is  all  an  inspiration. 

167 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS   A    TREND 

And  the  progress  in  all  doctrines  which  are  re- 
lated to  this  doctrine  of  God,  is  also  manifest. 
The  doctrine  of  man  as  a  moral  being  is  pervaded 
by  the  same  inspiration.  He  is  described  in  the 
historical  book  of  Genesis  in  his  physical  aspect, 
when  the  writer  is  enumerating  the  objects  com- 
prehended in  the  creative  work.  But  the  moral 
endowment  is  also  named,  as  he  becomes  a  living 
soul  in  the  image  of  God — an  intellectual  and  a 
spiritual  being,  as  is  God.  That  such  a  being, 
formed  for  companionship  with  God,  should  have 
started  on  the  lowest  moral  plane,  is  repugnant  to 
all  who  see  the  glory  and  beauty  of  Eden  as  re- 
flected from  the  sacred  page.  Created  holy,  with 
all  which  the  conception  carries  with  it,  we  see 
him  fall.  But  we  see  him  worth  saving.  Primal 
promise  succeeds  primal  sin.  The  hurter  is  to  be 
hurt  himself,  and  the  one  hurt  is  to  be  rescued 
from  the  clutch  of  the  evil  one.  All  old  literatures 
as  well  as  all  modern  religions  have  to  account  in 
some  way  for  sin.  But  the  moral  element  gather- 
ing about  the  moral  fact,  which  must  also  have 
physical  expression,  stands  up  and  out  and  apart 
in  the  biblical  story.  Genesis  is  not  a  mere  his- 
toric reply  to  the  curious  questions  pressing  all 
ancient  literatures  for  an  answer.  It  is  a  moral 
presentation  of  truth  incarnated  in  physical  fact. 
It  shows  the  love  of  God  with  reference  to  right- 
eousness, and  equally  the  greatness  of  man  to  be 
able  to  bring  about  an  evil  so  disastrous  as  sin. 
The  mingled  grandeur  and  guilt  of  man  stand 
forth. 

And  then  begins  the  idea  of  human  restoration 

i68 


THE  WARRANTED  DEDUCTIONS 


which  is  to  be  elaborated  through  all  history. 
And  the  whole  idea  of  securing  this  rescue  through 
a  family  which  in  the  fullness  of  time  is  to  produce 
"the  Man,"  discloses  the  divine  trend.  Every 
step  from  the  Genesis  through  the  whole  history 
of  Israel  is  the  onward  march  of  a  divine  thought. 
True,  God  controls  all  history,  and  every  nation 
contributes  its  quota,  often  unconsciously  and  un- 
willingly, to  his  vast  plan.  But  there  is  that  in 
this  Hebrew  history  which  has  a  specially  distinct 
purpose ;  a  peculiarly  divine  ordering ;  a  definite 
direction ;  an  unfolding  by  all  ordinary  and  all 
supernatural  events,  which  makes  each  step  equally 
a  new  fulfillment  and  a  new  prophecy.  The  events 
have  guidance.  The  series  of  men  have  guidance. 
There  is  a  purpose  and  a  spirit  in  all  of  the  history 
that  is  unique.  The  things  are  controlled  as  is 
also  the  story  of  them.  The  tone  of  the  two  ex- 
actly harmonizes.  He  who  guided  the  event 
guided  the  record.  They  live  and  breathe  and 
have  their  being  together.  The  Pentateuchal 
sobriety,  the  monotheism  everywhere  shown  in 
contrast  with  the  polytheism  that  dominates  all 
other  religions,  the  documents,  their  literary  form 
in  accord  with  those  of  their  age,  and  yet  so  widely 
unlike  them  in  their  entire  scope  and  spirit  and 
purpose — these  are  all  the  fit  introduction  to  the 
subsequent  books  of  the  national  history.  And 
these  succeeding  books  never  once  fall  below  the 
high  key  on  which  the  whole  divine  song  has 
been  pitched. 

The  book    of    Judges   shows   how  the  leading 
personages  of  the  Hebrew  religion  defended  not 

169 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

only  their  land  but  their  faith,  in  that  rude  and 
stirring  time.  Its  idea  is  not  chronology.  It  is 
evidently  a  compilation.  It  has  its  incidents  which 
throw  more  light  on  its  times  than  mere  chronicles 
could  do.  The  moral  ideas  of  sin  with  its  penal- 
ties, of  repentance  with  its  reformations,  of  deliv- 
erances which  foretell  some  far-off  Deliverer,  these 
make  up  a  book  which  is  so  unlike  the  expected 
'memorabilia  of  such  a  period,  that  it  has  been 
called  ''  a  philosophy  of  history  with  its  abounding 
illustrations."  The  trend  is  definite,  and  is  even 
stronger  than  in  the  Pentateuch.  Deborah's  song 
has  had  equal  recognition  for  its  poetry  and  its 
religion.  It  is  a  sacred  war-song.  It  throbs  with 
moral  purpose.  God's  plan  for  the  nation  and  his 
unslumbering  providence  for  his  Israel,  are  the 
sustained  harmonies  which  befit  a  book  that  follows 
the  Hexateuch. 

Samuel,  by  whomsoever  written,  does  not  de- 
cline from  the  high  plane.  It  brings  in  the  work 
and  word  of  a  "  prophet  of  the  Lord."  It  intro- 
duces more  distinctly  the  moral  purpose  to  which 
all  incidents  and  personages  contribute.  The 
splendid  period  of  the  monarchy  with  its  promise 
of  an  unending  reign  of  David's  successors — 
which  can  have  no  other  than  a  spiritual  fulfill- 
ment— lifts  the  moral  idea  as  illustrated  by  the 
historical  fact  into  such  prominence  that  there  is 
almost  universal  recognition  from  this  time  forth  of 
the  high,  ethical,  religious,  and  even  spiritual 
truth  which  the  writers  exhibit.  What  shall  be 
said  of  the  ''prophets,"  except  this,  that  they 
combine  with  their  immediate  and  local  reference 

170 


THE  WARRANTED  DEDUCTIONS 


a  constant  outlook  to  the  great  spiritual  facts  that 
are  farther  on.  Oriental  in  form,  they  are  uni- 
versal in  spirit.  Seeing  perhaps  always  something 
near  at  hand,  they  are  illuminated  by  the  constant 
vision  of  things  yet  to  come.  The  temporal  is  of 
worth  because  the  light  of  the  eternal  rests  upon 
it.  The  prophet  sees  in  one  glance  the  temporal 
and  the  spiritual.  The  vital  eye  sees  the  everlast- 
ing truth  in  the  local  incident.  The  principle 
shines  through  the  fact.  God  and  man,  and  the 
eternal  principles  which  make  up  their  moral  rela- 
tion, appear  and  reappear.  Time  is  seldom  an  ele- 
ment. Events  are  related  in  character  rather 
than  in  historical  order.  Sorrows  center  in  the 
sorrowing  Christ.  Calamities  look  forward  to  final 
doom.  Deliverances  which  are  political  are  linked 
with  the  deliverance  to  be  accorded  when  the  great 
Deliverer  shall  come.  All  events  have  infinite 
suggestiveness.  The  gospel  is  preached  before- 
hand in  its  principles,  and  sometimes  strange 
flashes  in  the  details  of  the  life  of  the  coming 
Christ  surprise  and  startle  us.  Surely  here,  if  no- 
where else,  one  may  discern  the  abounding  proofs 
of  a  divine  inspiration. 

And  what  shall  be  said  of  the  Psalms,  the  one 
great  devotional  book  of  the  world  ?  Backward 
they  look,  and  forward  as  well.  They  involve  the 
great  events  of  the  national  history.  They  were 
impossible  but  for  the  previous  inspiration.  We 
do  not  look  in  these  poems  for  direct  citation  from 
Pentateuch  and  historic  narration.  Quotation  must 
be  not  that  of  incident,  but  of  the  emotion  the  inci- 
dent awakens.      Poetic  quotation  is  not  of  the  fact, 

171 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

but  of  the  feeling  that  answers  to  the  fact.  It 
grasps  the  spirit  of  an  occasion.  It  voices  the 
public  feeling  of  a  nation  as  well  as  the  inner  ex- 
perience of  a  human  soul.  It  is  quotation  of  the 
inner  meaning  of  an  event.  It  sets  forth  in  its 
own  way  the  atmosphere  and  the  tone  which  made 
the  historic  facts  a  possibility.  Such  a  form  of 
citation  is  not  especially  convincing  to  some  minds. 
But  to  other  men,  with  strong  sympathetic 
natures,  who  see  what  of  fact  is  involved  in  a  pe- 
culiar mood  of  national  or  personal  song,  this 
evidence  is  more  than  equal  to  statement.  Such 
persons  are  able  to  put  themselves  back  in  thought 
and  feeling  among  the  scenes  of  Hebrew  history. 
They  do  not  ask,  as  some  have  done,  for  citation 
by  word  or  by  deed  from  the  Pentateuch.  Verbal 
historic  quotation  they  would  no  more  expect  in 
the  Psalms  than  in  a  modern  English  poem.  They 
feel  the  breath  of  the  old  incidents.  They  see 
how  impossible  some  of  these  psalms  are,  apart 
from  the  former  history  and  the  previousl}^  known 
revelation.  There  is  a  vital  eye ;  there  is  a  vital 
ear.  There  is  a  sensitiveness  to  the  inner  mean- 
ing of  events  as  expressed  in  song.  Such  men 
have  a  more  convincing  evidence,  in  the  tone  and 
temper,  in  the  moral  atmosphere  and  in  the  holy 
aspiration  which  breathes  throughout  the  older 
psalms  about  the  historicity  of  the  Pentateuchal 
facts,  than  could  be  given  them  in  any  other  way. 
And  when  to  the  backward  glance  there  is  added 
the  prophetic  onlook,  the  conviction  of  a  divine 
inspiration  grows  stronger  than  ever.  There  are 
flashes  of  the  gospel  day.    The  glint  is  in  the  east. 

172 


THE  WARRANTED  DEDUCTIONS 


That  way  comes  up  the  sun.  It  flecks  the  morn- 
ing clouds.  They  begin  to  bum  and  glow.  Up 
into  the  heavens  spring  the  swift  rays.  The  edge 
of  the  sun  is  on  the  horizon. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  of  all  the  references 
to  the  Old  Testament  in  the  New,  nearly  one  half 
are  from  the  Psalms.  The  vicissitudes  of  the  in- 
dividual life,  its  deepest  sorrows  and  highest  joys, 
have  found  their  best  expression  through  all  the 
Christian  centuries  in  this  book.  On  the  cross  our 
Lord  quotes  from  a  psalm  which  is  a  sufferer's 
plaint ;  and  at  Pentecost,  Peter,  chief  spokesman 
of  the  apostolic  band,  cites  the  remarkable  proph- 
ecy which  he  finds  in  a  resurrection  psalm.  About 
the  Psalms  as  a  whole,  Robertson  has  happily  said 
"  that  which  in  all  ages  has  been  the  answer  of 
the  soul  to  God  must  have  been  inspired  by  the 
Spirit  of  God." 

And  the  later  books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  are 
lifted  above  mere  annals  by  the  pervasive  thought 
which  throbs  through  them.  Israel  returned  to 
God's  favor,  Israel  called  again  to  a  new  and 
purer  national  and  spiritual  life,  these  are  the  core 
of  the  historic  events.  The  books  glow  with  the 
memories  of  a  former  time.  The  old  facts  are 
assumed.  They  alone  make  the  new  history  pos- 
sible. The  Samaritan  is  found  with  his  Penta- 
teuch, which  is  substantially  the  Hebrew  Penta- 
teuch. The  old  rivalry  over  the  Pentateuchal  facts, 
which  both  not  only  admit  but  insist  upon  and 
claim  as  their  special  inheritance, — a  rivalry  which 
continues  until  the  New  Testament  times, — shows 
not  only  the  existence,  but  the  inspiring  thought  of 

173 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

the  former  ages.  No  Jewish  code,  just  then 
written  out,  would  have  been  accepted  by  the  Sa- 
maritans. Both  hold  the  ancient  records  in  rever- 
ence ;  "  but  salvation  is  of  the  Jews,"  who  alone 
carry  out  and  carry  on  the  inspiring  thought  of 
the  Pentateuch  into  the  larger  prophetic  outlook 
which  sees  the  "salvation"  of  the  gospel  day. 

The  inspiring  thought  of  the  New  Testament 
is,  in  some  respects,  more  evident  than  that  of  the 
Old.  There  is  less  of  prophecy,  but  more  of  ful- 
fillment. Those  who  rejoice  to  see  a  process  in 
each  of  its  growing  steps,  who  see  special  design 
in  the  development  of  fact  and  of  thought,  will 
delight  to  trace  the  inspiring  Spirit  of  God  in  the 
Old  Testament  ;  while  those  who  care  little  for 
root  and  branch  and  leafage  and  bud,  but  rejoice 
in  the  full  flowering  of  the  plant,  will  see  the 
greater  proofs  of  divine  inspiration  in  the  New 
Testament  Christ  as  portrayed  in  the  four  Gospels. 
They  recognize  in  the  Evangelists,  the  Lord  the 
Christ ;  and  in  the  Acts  and  Epistles,  the  Lord 
the  Spirit.  Seen  either  way,  from  the  point  of 
prophetic  outlook  or  from  the  backward  glance 
over  the  whole  illuminated  course,  the  view  is  that 
of  divine  events  divinely  ordered,  and  the  series 
culminating  in  Christ.  And  such  a  series  of 
revelations  has  its  fit  correlative  in  a  record  as  care- 
fully ordered  as  were  the  events  themselves. 


1/4 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

The  Bible,  in  one  aspect  of  it,  is  a  purely  human 
book.     It   is  written   in  human   language.     It  is 
composed  by  members  of  the 
human   race.     It  addresses  it-        t>,^^w^^ 
self  to  the  human  reason  and  Jf,    ^^^^ 

to  the  human  soul.  It  shows 
marks  of  literary  work  in  which  the  writers  make 
use  of  their  own  individuality  in  selecting  their 
favorite  words,  in  composing  their  special  sentences, 
in  marshaling  their  gathered  facts,  and  in  their 
whole  method  of  reasoning  upon  them.  Without 
consulting  the  book,  just  by  the  ring  of  the  words, 
you  know  that  certain  sentences  are  from  Paul 
rather  than  from  John.  And  just  as  we  say  that 
a  stanza  of  a  poem  "  sounds  like  Milton  or  Pope 
or  Tennyson,"  so  we  say  that  a  given  paragraph 
sounds  like  Isaiah  or  David  or  Peter.  These  men 
write  history,  compose  poetry,  utter  discourses,  and 
dictate  letters,  precisely  as  do  other  men.  Their 
style  in  its  excellencies  and  defects  is  matter  for 
fit  literary  criticism.  This  prophet  uses  rough 
language  and  that  one  shows  the  marks  of  finest 
culture.  In  one  writer  you  have  pure,  in  the  other 
impure,  Hebrew  or  Greek.  One  writer  shows 
large  learning,  while  another  shows  its  absence. 
One  is  logical,  another  is  experiential,  and  a  third 

175 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


is  poetical.  In  the  historical  books  the  studied 
work  of  the  compiler  and  the  practised  hand  of  a 
careful  writer  are  sometimes  clearly  manifest. 
The  authors  are  men,  often  of  industry,  for  their 
work  shows  that  they  have  compared  and  collated 
and  accepted  and  rejected,  in  disposing  of  their 
material.  They  have  consulted  authorities  and 
come  to  conclusions.  They  are  sometimes  eye- 
witnesses and  sometimes  they  take  testimony. 
They  compose,  they  edit,  they  re-edit.  They  work 
on  human  lines  of  investigation,  as  Prescott  and 
Macaulay  have  done.  i\nd  all  this  painstaking 
work,  so  far  from  interfering  with  the  act  of  the 
inspiring  Spirit  of  God,  is  the  very  kind  of  thing 
we  should  most  expect  him  to  superintend  and  en- 
dorse. He  is  the  Spirit  of  wisdom,  and  we  should 
expect  him  to  use  wise  methods. 

Nor  does  this  recognition  of  the  obvious  fact  of 
human  labor  and  thought  and  skill  in  the  produc- 
tion of  the  book  necessitate  the  reception  of  the 
"critical  analysis"  which  different  persons,  with 
different  results,  have  sought  to  apply  to  portions 
of  the  Bible.  We  need  not  confound  these  special 
claims  with  the  broader  claims  of  a  due  gathering 
of  material  from  authentic  sources  by  careful 
biblical  writers.  The  attempt  to  sort  out  the 
material  and  assign  various  portions  of  it  to  some 
four  or  five  imaginary  persons,  designated  by  let- 
ters such  as  "  J  "  and  '*P"  may  be  held  in  abey- 
ance. Were  this  to  be  proven — as  it  never  could 
be,  even  were  it  true — it  should  not  be  considered 
as  in  any  way  detracting  from  the  human  reliability 
or  the  divine  endorsement  of  the  history. 

176 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

Most  persons  will  ask  why  only  three  or  four 
are  named  as  the  originals  from  which  the  authors 
drew  their  information  ?  Why  not,  if  we  are  to 
do  this  work  at  all,  recognize  dozens  of  these 
briefer  narratives  which  supply  the  material  for 
some  Old  Testament  Luke  to  "set  in  order."  The 
results  of  assigning  certain  portions  of  the  Mosaic 
history  to  these  few  imaginary  persons,  are  made 
the  basis  of  amusing  screeds.  Prof.  Meade,  in  his 
''Realsham"  analysis  of  the  "Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans," and  Prof.  Green,  in  his  supposed  analysis 
of  the  "Parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son,"  have  made 
legitimate  sport  of  this  whole  style  of  professed 
scholarship.  In  certain  literary  circles  the  same 
thing  has  been  attempted  with  a  chapter  of  Milton 
and  a  play  of  Shakespeare,  and  with  similar  ab- 
surd results.  All  this  shows  how  any  special  form 
of  scholarship  can  mislead  and  can  be  misled 
when  its  conjectures  are  not  checked  by  related 
learning.  The  same  style  of  apportionment  has 
not  yet  been  appHed  to  the  new  "finds"  of  cunei- 
form inscriptions ;  and  yet  these  very  methods  of 
composition  are  found  among  the  Babylonian  and 
Assyrian  tablets,  and  are  shown  to  be  simply  a 
literary  fashion  of  the  ante-biblical  times,  and  so 
calling  for  no  analysis  at  all  to  explain  them.  The 
method  of  Genesis  was  a  method  then  recognized 
as  historical.  But  these  alleged  results  of  critical 
analysis,  whether  they  shall  be  found  to  have  any 
real  worth  or  are  held  as  valueless,  have  done  for 
us  at  least  one  good  service.  They  have  given 
fresh  emphasis  to  the  fact  of  a  human  element  in 
the  composition  of  the  sacred  Scriptures.  They 
M  177 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

have  made  men  more  willing  to  see  the  traces  of 
the  successive  centuries  in  the  successive  writers. 
They  have  shown  how  the  same  word  comes  to 
have  a  series  of  meanings,  until  they  all  culminate 
in  one  grand  spiritual  interpretation  ;  so  that  the 
word  almost,  and  sometimes  altogether,  drops  the 
originally  coarse  and  material  meaning.  The  newer 
time  fills  out  the  word  and  glorifies  it,  as  Jesus 
uses  it  in  the  New  Testament.  And  all  this  makes 
the  book  the  more  thoroughly  human ;  for  we  see 
it  in  the  very  act  of  growing  with  the  growing 
advancement  of  the  human  race  as  the  thought  of 
God  unfolds  itself  to  men  and  in  men. 

To  many  minds  this  human  element  is  at  first 
very  disquieting.  They  have  been  wont  to  em- 
phasize the  divine  element  in  the  Bible,  not  too 
much — that  were  impossible — but  too  exclusively. 
Due  consideration  would  lead  such  hesitating  per- 
sons to  see  that  the  divine  element  is  all  the  more 
obvious  because  it  so  wisely  employs  the  best 
human  learning  and  wisdom  and  genius.  Would 
God  the  Holy  Spirit  be  more  conspicuously  divine 
in  his  work  by  employing  some  Israelite  who  had 
not  known  how  to  write  rather  than  in  employing 
the  wise  Moses  ?  Surely  he  were  a  foolish  man 
who  should  choose  ignorance  rather  than  wisdom 
in  one  who  was  to  present  his  cause  before  a 
human  tribunal.  And  when  God  comes  to  the 
world  with  a  plea  addressed  to  thoughtful  men,  he 
is  not  going  to  do  an  act  that  would  sully  his 
wisdom  in  neglecting  to  use  a  man  like  Moses, 
who  is  careful  in  historical  research,  broad  in  legal 
knowledge,  and  ripe  in  religious  experience. 

178 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 


It  is  alleged  that  "to  err  is  human,"  that  im- 
perfect man,  using  imperfect  language,  is  liable  to 
mistake ;  that  the  human  element  is  necessarily 
an  imperfect,  fallible,  and  erroneous  element.  Let 
us  look  at  this  objection  very  carefully.  For  if 
this  is  a  fact  it  follows  that  God  cannot  give  a  re- 
liable communication  of  his  will  to  man.  It  fol- 
lows that,  while  man  can  give  his  thought  to  his 
fellow-man  with  such  accuracy  that  life  or  death 
depends  upon  the  communication,  God  cannot  do 
the  thing  that  man  daily  does.  It  follows,  more- 
over, that  all  human  testimony  as  well  as  divine 
teaching,  since  couched  in  human  language,  is  un- 
reliable. The  uncertainty  of  all  knowledge,  the 
doubtfulness  of  all  reasoning,  the  impotency  of  all 
conclusions  on  every  subject  on  which  man  has 
ever  thought  or  spoken,  are  assured,  if  this  principle 
is  once  admitted  ;  and  so  far  as  truth  is  concerned 
truth  may  be  true  and  we  be  unable  to  know  it 
true. 

Now  it  is  of  course  admitted  that  some  witnesses 
are  perjured,  and  some  testimony  false,  and  some 
reasonings  are  fallacious,  and  some  conclusions  are 
erroneous.  But  we  men  are  not  lunatics  and  the 
human  reason  is  not  a  fraud.  We  are  so  made  as 
to  be  capable  of  certainty.  We  are  so  constituted 
as  to  be  able  to  believe  in  the  integrity  of  our 
senses,  in  the  sanity  of  our  minds,  and  the  reli- 
ability of  our  knowledge.  We  are  compelled  to 
believe  without  a  special  divine  revelation  that  two 
and  two  are  four.  A  thousand  miracles  from  God 
in  attestation  would  not  convince  us  more  fully  of 
it.     No  added  inspiration  of  all  the  prophets  and 

179 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

apostles  would  make  us  more  sure  of  that  fact. 
There  is  no  world  in  which  two  and  two  can  make 
five.  In  God's  mind  as  in  ours  two  and  two  are 
four.  We  cannot  be  more  certain  than  we  are  of 
this  truth — a  truth  which  we  know  solely  by  our 
human  faculties. 

It  is  so  elsewhere.  Trials  in  the  court-room, 
when  conducted  under  accepted  and  proved  rules 
of  evidence,  have  reached  in  many  cases  a  positive 
conclusion,  and  the  verdict  is  an  absolute  certainty ; 
and  all  who  know  the  evidence  are  necessarily 
obliged  to  own  the  righteousness  of  the  decision. 
It  would  be  impossible  not  to  do  so.  It  matters 
not  that  there  have  been  sometimes  mis-trials  and 
unjust  verdicts.  The  failures  only  make  us  more 
cautious  in  our  legal  methods.  There  is  just 
enough  liability  to  mistake  to  quicken  diligence 
and  make  us  the  more  certain  of  results  that  are 
without  error.  In  all  processes  of  investigation, 
the  element  of  possible  mistake  is  a  safeguard 
against  undue  haste;  an  incentive  to  honest  and 
faithful  work.  Its  outcome,  when  given  due  re- 
gard, is  greater  certainty.  It  serves  us,  with  other 
human  elements,  in  our  investigations  by  keeping 
us  on  our  watch  against  admitting  false  testimony 
and  coming  to  rash  conclusions.  We  are  so  made 
up  by  the  very  constitution  of  our  minds,  that  we 
must  give  credit  to  evidence,  must  be  convinced 
by  human  testimony  in  certain  cases.  There  is  a 
truthful  element  in  some  men's  work ;  a  reliability 
about  some  kinds  of  human  evidence ;  a  conviction 
of  certainty  about  results  that  are  attained  under 
some  circumstances.     This  human  proof  is  so  ab- 

i8o 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

solute  that  we  act  upon  it  in  cases  where  reputa- 
tion, fortune,  and  even  life  itself  is  involved. 
About  some  human  things  we  are  certain.  They 
are  proved.  No  more  evidence  is  needed.  To 
have  a  thing  proved,  even  if  the  testimony  for  it 
is  purely  human,  is  the  end  of  all  controversy. 
We  are  so  made  as  to  rely  upon  sure  proof;  and 
we  do  this,  if  we  have  a  sound  and  healthy  mind, 
without  one  doubt.  Now  then,  if  this  is  so,  surely 
God,  in  giving  us  the  Bible,  will  not  neglect  to 
give  us  this  very  trustworthy  form  of  evidence 
just  where  it  will  be  to  us  the  most  convincing; 
just  where  he  has  made  us  to  be  capable  of  finding- 
such  strong  intellectual  satisfactions.  The  Bible 
knows  the  men  it  addresses.  Let  us  be  glad  that 
God  has  made  use  of  this  method  of  proof  so  re- 
liable elsewhere  and  so  desirable  here.  To  have 
failed  of  giving  us  these  mental  satisfactions  along 
the  line  where  we  certainly  should  have  expected 
him  to  meet  us,  would  have  appeared  very  strange 
and  even  unreasonable.  And  though  the  old  adage 
remains,  **to  err  is  human,"  yet  there  are  circum- 
stances where  the  theoretical  fallibility  is  practically 
eliminated  from  the  results — circumstances  where 
a  thing  proved  cannot  be  more  than  proved. 

We  are  met,  in  this  human  element  of  the  Bible, 
along  the  line  of  our  most  positive  convictions. 
We  are  used  to  this  kind  of  proof,  we  expect  it. 
We  are  not  foiled  in  our  just  anticipations  of  the 
certainty  to  be  derived  from  human  testimony. 
And  so,  as  we  gather  up  the  testimony  of  eye- 
witnesses, of  competent  scholars  of  the  olden 
time,  of    kings   and    priests,  poets  and  prophets, 

i8i 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

evangelists  and  apostles,  we  find  a  peculiarly  satis- 
fying proof  that  God  has  wrought  the  work  of  an 
inspired  volume  by  human  hands.  There  is  a 
magnificent  trend  in  all  this  consenting  human 
evidence.  The  Author  of  the  Bible,  who  saw 
the  end  from  the  beginning,  and  who  knows  what 
is  in  man,  has  consulted  our  human  needs,  taken 
our  human  methods  of  proof,  and  given  us  evi- 
dence along  expected  and  guaranteed  lines.  He 
has  spoken  here  in  human  literature.  This  human 
element  in  the  Bible,  instead  of  a  source  of  weak- 
ness, is  an  evidence  of  strength.  It  is  indeed  an 
argument  gained  from  what  some  have  hastily 
called  an  unpromising  field.  But  it  is  certainly 
true  that  the  element  of  supposed  fallibility  and 
uncertainty  is  so  managed  as  to  assure  us  of  the 
carefulness,  and  so  the  larger  likelihood  of  accuracy 
in  the  biblical  writers.  And  what  elsewhere  and 
in  some  other  circumstances  would  be  errancv, 
becomes  under  these  peculiar  conditions  a  contri- 
bution toward  a  belief  in  the  inerrancy  of  the  book 
itself. 

And  yet  further;  the  Bible  needs  to  have  the 
human  element  in  order  to  be  capable  of  any  divine 
inspiration.  There  might  be  a  revelation  to  men 
who  had  no  written  language ;  but  the  inspiration 
of  the  record  of  that  revelation  would  need,  in 
order  to  its  existence  and  accuracy,  the  human 
element.  It  would  require  literary  form  of  some 
kind  and  degree.  It  would  crave  some  capacity 
in  man  to  receive  and  to  communicate  to  others 
the  revelation,  however  God  should  make  it.  This 
human  element  is  the  one  on  which  alone  God's 

182 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

Holy  Spirit  can  lay  hold.  The  Bible  must  be  a 
human  book  in  order  to  be  an  inspired  book.  We 
do  not  subtract  from  its  accuracy,  its  inerrancy,  its 
infallibility,  or  its  inspiration,  when  we  insist  upon 
this  human  element.  We  add  the  very  ingredient 
that  otherwise  were  wanting.  The  book  is  not  to 
be  divided  into  parts,  one  part  human  and  another 
part  divine.  It  is  not  in  spots  from  man,  and  in 
other  spots  from  God.  To  be  of  God  anywhere  it 
must  everywhere  be  of  man.  Mr.  Spurgeon  has 
said  :  ''  The  eternal  Word,  Jesus  Christ,  is  both 
human  and  divine,  but  no  man  can  sav  where  the 
divine  ends  and  the  human  begins.  So  in  the 
written  word  of  God,  every  word  is  both  human 
and  divine  in  source ;  but  no  man  can  define  the 
limits  between  the  human  and  the  divine." 

A  revelation  without  human  means  is  indeed 
conceivable.  There  is  revelation  in  suns  and  stars, 
in  mountains  and  plains.  There  was  revelation  at 
Horeb  and  Carmel.  But  inspiration  requires  man 
in  the  use  of  his  mental  powers.  It  is  mind  mov- 
ing upon  mind ;  soul  in  contact  with  soul  ;  one 
personality  projecting  itself  upon  another;  one 
person's  thought  and  feeling,  and  it  may  be  his 
words,  entering  into  another's  thinking  and  feeling 
and  speech.  It  is  one  person  affecting  another ; 
but  not  so  that  the  personality  of  the  other  is 
always  and  necessarily  suspended.  In  some  cases, 
it  may  be,  it  renders  the  human  mind  more  acute, 
more  susceptible,  and  more  self-conscious.  A  man 
would  not  be  less  a  man  but  more  completely  a 
man  by  the  inspiration  of  God.  In  some  few  forms 
of  the  inspiring  influence,  as  in  the  case  of  proph- 

183 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

ecy,  the  requirement  may  have  been  for  exaltation 
beyond  one's  self. 

And  yet  it  has  been  earnestly  contended  that 
all  distant  prophecies  see  a  nearer  point  of  hu- 
man vision  and  a  nearer  material  fulfillment  as 
their  first  meaning  ;  while  the  far-off  vision  is  that 
of  things  seen  as  having  no  chronological,  but 
only  a  logical  relation  ;  events  seen  as  connected 
in  order  of  kind  rather  than  in  order  of  time.  Let 
us  leave  it  for  heathen  nations  to  believe  in  a 
"divine  afflatus,"  seizing  upon  men  in  moments  of 
delirium,  when  the  mind  is  off  its  balance.  The 
lunatic  and  the  man  bereft  momentarily  of  his 
reason  they  thought  more  likely  to  be  inspired. 
The  frenzy  of  idol  worshipers  was  at  the  farthest 
remove  from  the  moral  sanity  of  the  prophets  of 
Jehovah.  The  seances  of  the  so-called  "spirit- 
ualist" of  our  day,  wherein  the  pretence  is  of  the 
overpowering  of  the  medium's  mind  by  some 
"spirit,"  are  the  exact  opposite  of  the  sacred  occa- 
sions on  which  holy  men  spoke  as  moved  by  God. 
The  paroxysms  of  nervous  devotees  may  be 
ascribed  to  heathen  gods  and  to  imaginary  "  spirits." 
But  a  grand  sanity  is  the  preparation  of  Moses 
and  Isaiah  and  Matthew  and  John  for  divine  inspi- 
ration. To  be  "in  the  Spirit "  is  not  to  be  out  of 
one's  mind.  Sense  rather  than  nonsense  is  a 
characteristic  of  biblical  inspiration.  Men  wise 
with  holy  moral  wisdom,  whose  minds  grow  large 
and  clear  in  the  radiance  of  God,  whose  hearts 
grow  warm  under  holy  love  and  whose  hands  and 
feet  are  swift  at  his  service,  are  the  ones  most  likely 
to  be  used  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.     These  men 

184 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

of  the  former  ages,  far  from  being  perfect  in  per- 
sonal character,  were  yet  the  best  men  in  their 
centuries.  They  were  the  foremost  moral  souls, 
and  so  were  likely  to  get  the  best  of  the  coming 
advance.  They  stood  highest  and  so  were  more 
certain  to  be  struck  by  the  earlier  rays  of  the  Sun 
of  Righteousness,  Not  folly  but  wisdom,  not  vice 
but  virtue,  not  fanaticism  but  sense,  not  ecstatic 
convulsion  but  the  steady  moral  sanity  of  men 
calmly  but  earnestly  engaged  in  God's  work — 
these  were  for  the  most  part  the  human  charac- 
teristics to  be  seized  upon,  enlarged,  purified, 
guided,  and  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Here  too,  as  everywhere  else,  we  can  but  mark 
the  inspiring  activity  seeking  its  end.  There  is 
steady  advance  in  moral  vision.  The  writers  are 
in  a  series,  and  one  growing  movement  sweeps 
them  on.  The  breath  of  God  breathes  on  these 
broad  historic  fields  where  we  find  them.  They 
bend,  like  the  yellow  corn  in  autumnal  days,  when 
stirred  by  the  breeze.  You  can  see  the  direction 
of  the  wind  and  watch  its  progress  over  the 
billowy  plains.  These  men  are  always  looking  on. 
The  vital  eye  is  always  growing  sharper.  You  can 
see  each  steadily  growing  in  a  better  inspiration 
than  the  one  he  supersedes.  Moses,  one  of  the 
older,  is  always  the  grandest  soul  personally  among 
all  the  men  from  Adam  to  Jesus.  But  the  inspi- 
ration of  inferior  men,  farther  on  in  the  series,  is 
more  advanced  than  his.  Isaiah  sees  farther  and 
gives  his  age  a  proto-gospel.  David,  inferior  in 
moral  fibre,  reaches  higher  planes  than  those 
trod    by  the   grander    man  who    led    Israel  from 

185 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

Egypt  in  that  most  memorable  march.  For,  while 
the  inspiring  spirit  selects  best  souls,  the  age  must 
also  be  consulted ;  and  the  inspiration  advances, 
though  no  second  Moses  appears,  till  Christ  comes. 
So  that  the  inspiration  of  God  is  the  agency  more 
potent  than  grandeur  of  powers  or  personal  piety. 
The  later  prophets  see  more  than  their  greater  sire 
at  Pharaoh's  court.  The  divine  trend  is  stronger 
than  the  human  personality.  The  increasing  light 
of  divine  inspiration  is  not  negligent  of  goodness, 
and  yet  is  not  measured  in  its  degree  by  the  piety 
of  the  man  inspired. 

And  when  the  inspiring  spirit  ceases  this  pecu- 
liar work  because  the  book  is  completed,  the  whole 
matter  of  its  preservation  as  so  much  human  liter- 
ature is  left  to  the  operation  of  the  same  laws  as 
govern  other  productions.  The  eliminating  process 
went  on.  The  more  ancient  documents  seem  to 
have  perished,  except  as  these  books  of  the  Bible, 
differing  from  all  others  in  their  moral  purpose, 
took  up  and  preserved  the  best  portions  of  them. 
It  was  an  instance  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
It  was  the  law  of  tendency.  It  was  natural  selec- 
tion with  a  moral  purpose  in  it.  It  kept  itself 
afloat  on  the  stream  of  time  while  other  literature 
sank  into  oblivion.  It  is  true  that  there  was 
human  genius — if  you  will,  a  human  inspiration 
in  it ;  so  that  the  best  Hebrew  minds,  those  most 
likely  to  be  touched  by  the  earlier  rays  of  a  divine 
inspiration,  were  the  immortal  ones  whose  memor- 
able works  still  reflect  the  light. 

And  just  because  it  is  human  work  on  one  side 
of  it,  this  book  is  exposed  to  the  same  fate  as  other 

i86 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

noble  literature.  As  in  Homer  and  Virgil,  and 
even  in  our  later  Shakespeare,  there  are  various 
readings,  so  the  manuscripts  occasionally  differ, 
though  taken  as  a  whole  they  have  wonderful 
agreement.  It  was  fitting  that  a  book  just  as  dis- 
tinctly man's  book  in  some  of  its  features  as  any 
other,  should  be  treated  in  the  same  way  as  all 
other  ancient  writings,  so  far  as  its  preservation  is 
concerned.  We  need  not  deny  a  divine  provi- 
dence in  the  preservation  of  a  book  which  has  in  it 
also  a  divine  element.  But  we  should  expect  that 
the  human  in  the  Scriptures,  produced  according 
to  the  laws  of  literary  method,  should  be  left  in 
the  main  to  do  battle  with  destructive  agencies, 
exactly  as  are  other  volumes  of  a  similar  antiquity. 
The  fact  of  a  human  element,  left  in  part  to  our 
human  preservation,  is  the  warrant  for  a  scholarly 
work  which  is  sometimes  known  as  the  '*  higher 
criticism."  No  name  could  have  been  more  un- 
fortunate, awaking  as  it  does  instant  prejudice  and 
opposition.  The  men  who  have  given  themselves 
to  questions  that  relate  to  a  genuine  test  for  the 
Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures,  are  not  more  lofty 
in  aim  nor  of  higher  scholarship  than  other  bibli- 
cal scholars.  One  section  of  these  workers  have 
confessedly  given  up  prayer.  But  prayerlessness 
in  such  inquiries  is  not  only  unsympathetic  but  un- 
scholarly.  If  the  undevout  astronomer  is  mad, 
what  shall  be  said  of  the  undevout  biblical  critic  ? 
But  we  must  remember  that  the  destructive  critic 
is  not  the  only  nor  even  the  superior  critic.  The 
questions  about  documents  and  dates  and  origins 
and  authors,  about  books  as  composite  and  as  re- 

187 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

edited,  are  not  new.  The  great  scholars  of  former 
times  debated  them.  But  they  would  not  have  al- 
lowed themselves  to  be  called  by  any  such  name 
as  "  higher  critics,"  nor  permitted  their  work  to  be 
called  the  ''  higher  criticism."  Of  large  learning, 
the  equals  of  any  men  now  living,  they  sifted  and 
compared  and  judged.  They  decided  on  the 
authenticity  and  inspiration  of  the  books  admitted 
to  the  canon.  Their  method  was  absolutely  logi- 
cal before  the  more  modern  names  of  the  ^'  induc- 
tive "  and  "deductive"  methods  were  bestowed 
upon  certain  processes  of  human  thought.  It  was 
not  in  late  centuries  that  men  began  to  reason. 
There  were  scholars  before  our  own  day.  Learn- 
ing did  not  begin  with  the  latter  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

But  though  assumption  in  these  respects  has 
awakened  prejudice,  we  must  not  yield  ourselves 
to  any  reactionary  mood.  God  committed  these 
documents  to  his  churches ;  and  the  questions 
about  dates  and  places  and  texts  and  versions  are 
all  of  importance.  Hitherto  the  discussion  of 
them  has  tended  on  the  whole  to  confirm  rather 
than  unsettle.  And  it  will  do  so  we  believe  in 
time  to  come.  Plain  Christians  may  at  first  be 
somewhat  disturbed.  But  the  final  result  has  al- 
ways been  helpful.  The  foundations  stand  secure. 
Whatever  of  light  from  linguistic  criticism  or 
archaeological  discovery  we  can  gain  for  the  better 
understanding  of  the  Bible,  we  most  gladly  wel- 
come. And  we  owe  to  devout  students  along  these 
lines  a  great  debt  of  gratitude ;  for  while  not 
denying  the  divine  element,  they  have  called  back 

i88 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 


attention  to  the  human  element  which  early- 
Christian  scholars  had  made  prominent,  but  which 
without  doubt  has  not  for  the  past  few  centuries 
received  sufficient  emphasis.^  And  if  occasionally 
a  devout  man,  in  this  reaction  against  undue  em- 
phasis in  the  one  direction,  has  gone  too  far  in  the 
other,  the  aim  and  spirit  of  the  genuine  student 
may  be  named  in  extenuation.     Great  scholars  in 

^  In  the  "  Homiletic  Review"  for  January,  1895,  Prof.  Henry 
Preserved  Smith  claims  certain  results  for  the  "  Higher  Criti- 
cism." They  are  I  :  "The  composite  nature  of  the  Historical 
Books."  But  the  fact  of  composite  material  was  taught  by  lead- 
ing professors  in  our  theological  seminaries  half  a  century  ago. 
2.  "The  composite  authorship  of  the  Psalms."  But  the  version 
we  have  all  used  for  years  has  as  a  prefatory  remark  to  the  nine- 
tieth psalm,  "A  Psalm  of  Moses,  the  man  of  God"  ;  while  such 
headings  as  these  are  found,  "A  Psalm  of  Asaph,"  "A  Psalm  of 
the  sons  of  Korah, "  "A  Psalm  of  Solomon."  Surely  the  ancient 
division  of  the  psalms  into  five  books  is  no  new  discovery.  And 
their  characterization  as  "Psalms  of  David,"  as  "Davidic, "  as 
"of  the  times  of  Josiah, "  "of  the  age  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah, " 
is  far  from  being  modern.  The  assignment  may  not  be  accurate, 
but  it  is  ceitainly  ancient.  And  he  would  be  very  bold  in  asser- 
tion who  would  say  that  the  last  word  had  been  spoken  on  the 
date  or  on  the  authorship  of  the  Psalms.  3.  "The  wisdom  litera- 
ture." But  here  too,  modern  investigators  are  simply  treading  in 
old  footsteps.  It  will  be  news,  indeed,  that  scholarship  for  cen- 
turies has  not  recognized  the  fact  that  Solomon  was  not  the  sole 
author  of  the  "Proverbs"  and  of  the  "wisdom  literature"  in 
general.  4.  "The  post-exilic  date  of  the  final  redaction  of  the 
Pentateuch."  But  even  here  it  is  to  be  noted  that  so  old  a  com- 
mentator as  good,  pious  Matthew  Henry,  in  his  note  on  Deut. 
34,  says,  "This  chapter  was  written  by  Joshua  or  Eleazar  or,  as 
Patrick  conjectures,  by  Samuel,  who  was  a  prophet,  and  wrote 
by  divine  authority."  So  that  these  questions  are  neither  newly 
raised  nor  newly  "decided."  They  are,  and  are  likely  to  be,  in 
the  flux  of  discussion,  and  neither  the  ancient  nor  the  modern  dog- 
matism on  them  is  warranted.  Meanwhile,  careful  men  wait.  But 
whatever  the  outcome,  whether  of  certainty  or  uncertainty,  noth- 
ing essential  is  really  disturbed.  The  human  element  is  pur- 
posely left  as  it  is  by  divine  wisdom. 

189 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

former  times  have  erred  here  and  there  in  details  ; 
but  their  general  work  has  been  of  immense  worth 
to  the  Christian  world.  And  modern  scholars 
may  have  announced  prematurely  their  conclusions 
in  biblical  science,  exactly  as  scholarly  men  have 
done  in  medical  and  in  natural  science.  We  do 
not  therefore  distrust  and  discard  investigation. 
The  general  trend  in  these  investigations  is  unmis- 
takable. The  things  surrendered  are  few,  the  facts 
gained  are  many.  The  book  is  a  divine  develop- 
ment through  good  men  moved  upon  by  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

In  the  preceding  section  it  is  argued  that  in  order 
that  the  Bible  might  be  capable  of  being  an  in- 
spired volume,  it  must  have  in 
Section  IL  -^  ^^iq  human  element.     It  was 

The  Divme  Ele-       ^  4.  •  i  -^.^        1 

.  certamly   written    by   men    m 

possession  of  their  human  fac- 
ulties. Its  historic  portions  bear  evidence  of 
having  been  composed  under  the  same  mental 
conditions  as  are  exhibited  in  uninspired  books. 
Its  writers  gathered  evidence.  They  took  the  tes- 
timony often  of  eye-witnesses.  They  were  capable 
of  being  inspired  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  since  they 
were  possessed  of  mental  and  moral  faculties.  Is 
the  other  proposition  also  true,  viz.  :  that  the 
divine  element  is  required  to  make  the  human 
element  reliable  in  such  a  book  as  the  Bible  ? 

Suppose  we  consider  that  what  is  chiefly  and 
primarily  inspired  is  a  great  series  of  connected 
facts,  partly  common  and  partly  uncommon.  These 
facts  constitute  Hebrew  history  and  culminate  in 

190 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 


Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles.  It  might  at  first  be 
thought  that  the  ordinary  facts  in  this  series  would 
require  only  the  human  element  in  the  record  of 
them,  while  divine  inspiration  might  be  needed 
for  those  which  were  supernatural.  But  what  if 
the  ordinary  facts  are  so  related  to  the  extra- 
ordinary, the  common  to  the  supernatural,  and 
both  so  related  to  the  great  underlying  plan  of 
them,  and  so  connected  with  the  divinely  unify- 
ing thought  that  throbs  through  them  all,  that  the 
kind  of  narrative  which  is  required  needs  the  divine 
supervision  in  the  smallest  as  well  as  in  largest 
things.  In  a  narrative  of  things  so  related  to  each 
other  and  to  one  great  plan,  the  divine  element  is 
needed  to  correct  the  human. 

Out  of  my  window  in  the  city  I  look  and  see 
two  men  engaged  in  an  altercation  on  the  street 
below.  From  my  position  I  see  it  all  and  see  it 
accurately.  Toward  the  combatants  runs  a  re- 
porter from  a  side  street  and  sees  one  part  of  the 
affair.  Soon  comes  another  and  he  sees  the  mid- 
dle of  the  transaction.  Both  come  to  my  room  to 
make  up  their  notes,  knowing  that  I  have  seen  the 
whole  affair  and  am  able  to  judge  accurately  of  the 
quarrel.  Each  writing  honestly  of  what  he  has 
seen  is  liable  to  use  some  word  or  phrase  which 
does  not  correctly  represent  the  matter.  I  do  not 
write  one  word  of  their  report,  but  I  supervise  the 
whole.  If  a  single  preposition  gives  a  wrong  im- 
pression, I  suggest  a  better  and  they  adopt  it. 

Let  us  open  the  Bible  and  take  an  incident  at 
random  that  is  not  miraculous.  It  shall  be  the 
fact  of  Jesus  going  to  dine  on  the  Sabbath  at  a 

191 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

Pharisee's  house.  That  incident  can  be  recorded 
in  such  a  way  as  to  be  entirely  out  of  sympathy 
with  the  whole  plan  of  Christ's  life.  Without 
using  one  false  word  a  writer  can  so  set  down  the 
incident  as  to  smirch  the  whole  character  of  Jesus 
Christ.  It  can  be  so  recorded  that  the  Lord  will 
seem  to  be  a  Sabbath  breaker.  It  can  make  him 
a  glutton.  It  can  make  him  a  winebibber.  It  can 
make  him  favor  Pharisaism.  It  can  leave  the  im- 
pression that  he  courted  the  rich  at  the  expense 
of  the  poor.  It  can  invert  every  principle  on 
which  his  character  was  founded.  Two  or  three 
such  scenes  described  in  unfortunate  language 
would  not  only  neutralize  the  power  of  any  in- 
cident for  good,  but  make  it  a  positive  harm  in 
all  the  coming  centuries.  Superintendence  to 
bring  the  record  into  line  with  God's  dominating 
thought  is  clearly  needed.  The  fact  to  all  the 
world,  save  the  few  nearest  concerned,  is  the  fact 
as  seen  in  the  record  of  the  Gospels.  A  single 
unguarded  word  in  the  record  would  leave  the 
wrong  impression  on  the  ages.  Even  in  common 
things  the  tone  of  the  narrative  means  more  than 
the  facts  themselves. 

Hallam's  personal  thought  in  his  *'  Constitu- 
tional History "  tinges  every  fact  he  names. 
Green  in  his  "  History  of  the  English  People " 
cannot  conceal  if  he  would  his  whole  point  of 
view.  His  tone  is  as  distinct  as  are  his  facts.  In 
the  Bible  the  inspired  facts  are  in  line  of  an  in- 
spired Divine  thought.  The  Thinker  must  guide 
the  free  writer  in  every  turn  of  a  sentence,  or  as 
well  have  no  inspired  fact  and  thought.     Did  you 

192 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

ever  stand  beside  the  pilot  of  a  noble  ship  as  she 
plowed  the  billows,  a  thing  of  life  ?  Did  you  ever 
watch  his  eye  as  it  glanced  at  the  compass,  then 
up  at  the  sails,  then  over  the  side  as  he  saw  the 
coming  wave  ?  If  everything  goes  right  he  stands 
motionless.  But  if  he  sees  that  a  flaw  of  the 
freshening  wind  is  about  to  change  his  vessel's 
prow  but  a  trifle  from  the  true  course,  how  quickly 
he  causes  the  turn  of  the  wheel  to  meet  the  new 
deflecting  force.  Or  if  a  broad  wave  gathering  on 
her  quarter  is  about  to  strike  his  ship  from  the 
line  of  her  progress,  swiftly  the  wheel  is  reversed. 
And  thus  amid  all  the  disturbing  influences  of 
wind  and  wave  the  pilot  guides  the  ship  surely  and 
safely  in  her  unchanged  path.  So  God  guides  the 
men  through  whom  he  will  make  known  his  will. 
Amid  all  human  imperfections,  amid  the  veering  of 
winds  and  the  tossing  of  the  waves  the  helmsman 
never  steers  wildly,  never  loses  his  control,  never 
is  deflected  from  his  course.  Man's  book  has 
God's  superintendence  in  all  its  parts. 

And  when  we  come  to  the  miraculous,  this, 
though  not  more  necessary,  is  even  more  evident. 
Human  writers  unassisted  in  their  record  of  the 
supernatural  are  sure  to  blunder.  They  are  com- 
petent witnesses  of  fact.  They  would  be  good 
annalists.  But  the  historian  is  far  more  than  a 
writer  of  annals.  The  Gospels  are  histories.  They 
are  connected  narratives  infused  with  a  thought. 
No  honesty  could  save  an  unassisted  writer  from 
mistake  by  some  turn  of  a  phrase,  some  ill-judged 
and  inaccurate  word  in  describing  the  miraculous. 
For  the  miracle  does  not  stand  alone.  It  has  fit 
N  193 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


time,  place,  and  circumstance.  It  has  its  distinc- 
tive character,  its  peculiar  setting  in  the  teaching, 
its  unique  position  in  the  divine  evolution  of  the 
divine  idea.  A  miracle  is  never  a  mere  buttress. 
It  is  not  even  a  stone  in  the  foundation.  It  is  a 
thing  growing  out  of  the  system.  It  is  not  a  sup- 
port of  the  revelation,  but  a  development  in  it. 
It  is  moral  fact  incarnate  in  physical  form.  It  will 
have  to  be  handled  with  care  in  the  record.  If  the 
primary  inspiration  is  in  the  fact  as  one  of  a  series, 
the  inspiration  in  the  thought  comes  close  upon  it ; 
and  both  demand  superintendence,  guidance,  cor- 
rection, accuracy. 

And  surely  no  one  can  dispute  the  ability  of 
God  so  to  inspire  men.  That  he  can  leave  them 
free  to  write  and  yet  can  guide  their  writing  is,  to 
say  the  least,  possible.  We  may  go  further  and 
claim  its  probability.  We  are  warranted  by  the 
former  citations  in  these  discussions  to  claim  this 
as  a  fact.  Nor  is  the  fact  invalidated  because  the 
same  thing  does  not  occur  in  the  experience  of 
any  or  of  all  men  to-day.  It  is  not  to  be  under- 
stood as  the  normal  condition  of  mankind,  nor  of 
these  writers  of  the  Scriptures.  Not  at  all  times 
were  they  commanded,  "  Write  the  things  thou 
sawest  in  a  book,"  Not  always  when  Jeremiah 
speaks  does  the  Lord  say,  "  Stand  in  the  gate  and 
proclaim  this  word"  (Jer.  7  :  i).  Not  of  all  Moses 
may  write,  is  it  said  that  "the  book  of  the  law"  is 
to  be  ''put  into  the  ark."  Isaiah  doubtless  wrote 
many  a  sentence ;  but  it  is  only  of  a  certain  series 
of  things  that  he  is  told  to  ''  Write  it  in  a  book." 
Not  always  is  the  prophetic  hand  of  Elisha  on  the 

194 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

arm  of  Joash  as  he  draws  the  bow.  But  the  in- 
spiring Spirit  at  times  made  use  of  the  chosen  in- 
strument. That  he  should  select  foremost  men 
to  reveal  truth  by  them  is  only  what  we  should  ex- 
pect. In  other  departments  than  religion  the 
action  of  great  genius  in  its  highest  reaches  is 
often  a  wonder  to  the  men  themselves  and  can 
scarcely  be  understood  by  others.  It  is  easier  to 
describe  than  to  define  what  is  meant  by  human 
inspiration  as  known  to  poet,  musician,  orator,  and 
writer.  They  know,  but  they  cannot  tell  it.  Even 
as  to  those  sudden  intuitions,  discoveries,  disclo- 
sures, those  revelations  of  the  mind  to  itself  as  to 
the  way  in  which  a  given  thing  can  best  be  done ; 
that  surprising  insight  which  in  some  gifted  mo- 
ments enables  men  to  see  what  was  dark  before, 
that  quick  flash  of  sunlight  on  the  perplexity  that 
had  baffled  our  study  for  days  and  weeks  ;  that  un- 
raveling and  clearing  of  a  tangled  skein  of 
thought ;  that  glad  heart-throb  when  an  idea  is 
born,  a  thought  struck  out,  an  invention  perfected 
— even  as  to  these  inspirations  of  human  genius, 
it  is  not  easy  to  offer  any  careful  and  exact  defi- 
nition. The  great  inventors  and  discoverers  and 
poets  and  painters  and  orators  cannot  tell  you 
what  it  is  they  feel.  They  can  only  give  us  some 
general  account  of  the  state  of  mind  in  which 
they  are  when  seized  upon  with  the  idea  which 
they  have  given  to  the  world.  They  say  it  must 
be  felt  in  order  to  be  understood.^ 


I  Mozart  describing  the  state  of  mind  in  which  musical  compo- 
sition was  to  him  most  lively  and  successful  says:  "Then,  the 
thoughts  come  streaming  in   upon  me  most   fluently,  whence  or 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

Now  if  we  take  the  case  of  the  most  extreme 
demand  for  a  divine  inspiration,  viz.,  that  of  proph- 
ecy, we  can  gain,  from  these  intimations  given  in 
human  inspiration,  some  reassuring  hints.  We  can 
see  its  trend.  In  most  cases,  some  would  claim  in 
all,  the  prophets  were  in  their  sanest  moods.  Con- 
scious of  more  than  self,  they  do  not  lose  self- 
consciousness.  It  shows  that  the  divine  inspiration 
did  not  so  enwrap  them  as  to  destroy  or  even  dis- 
tort the  usual  operations  of  their  minds,  when  we 
find  them  while  under  its  influence  affected  nor- 
mally as  well.  The  case  of  Ezekiel,  who  remained 
"astonished  for  seven  days"  (Ezek.  3:15)  shows 
the  man  in  full  possession  of  his  usual  faculties. 
He  is  not  receiving  any  mechanical  inspiration. 
He  is  no  ''rapt  seer."  He  understands  enough  of 
his  own  message  to  be  profoundly  stirred  thereby. 
He  is  no  passive  "amanuensis,"  no  mere  "pen  of 
God,"  no  mere  "scribe  of  an  unknown  influence," 
no  "  machine  for  God's  touch."  He  has  intelH- 
gent  consciousness  of  what  is  going  on  about 
him  and  revealed  in  him.  He  has  not  been  "  lost 
in  an  overpowering  inspiration." 

Daniel,  by  his  river  Ulai,  was  also  "  astonished  " 
at  his  vision  (Dan.  8  :  27).  Habakkuk  "trembled  " 
as  he  foretold  the  terrors  God  would  bring  ac- 
cording to  his  words  ;  and  when  mercy  was  shown 
him  as  sure  to  come  to  his  people  at  their  repent- 
ance, he  cried  out,  "  I  will  greatly  rejoice  in  the 

how  is  more  than  I  can  tell.  Then  follows  the  clang  of  the  dif- 
ferent instruments  ;  then,  if  not  disturbed,  the  thing  grows  greater, 
broader,  clearer.  I  see  the  whole  like  a  beautiful  picture.  This  is 
delight." 

196 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

Lord."  We  need  not  deny  a  verbal,  if  we  reject 
a  mechanical  theory  of  the  divinely  prophetic  in- 
fluence. We  may  decline  to  accept  any  theory, 
holding  ourselves  closely  to  the  facts.  Enough  in 
this  connection  to  note  that  the  prophets  never 
claim  to  be  other  than  themselves.  They  are  men  ; 
but  men  inspired  of  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  while  not  losing  their  con- 
sciousness, they  do  not  always  understand  all  their 
words  contain.  The  meaning  of  their  message  must 
not  be  fully  measured  by  what  they  understood  of 
it.  It  had  a  fullness  beyond  them  and  often  be- 
yond their  day.  They  saw  the  nearer,  but  not 
always  the  farther  fact.  It  is  merely  a  curious 
question  for  us  to  inquire  how  far  they  and  the 
men  of  their  time  understood  prophecies  which 
were  to  be  full  of  unfolding  for  all  time  and 
eternity.  The  larger  and  better  question  for  us  is 
not  what  they  thought,  but  what  is  God's  thought 
in  these  prophecies.  Message  is  larger  than  mes- 
senger. All  time  is  larger  than  their  time.  God's 
intention  rather  than  their  understanding  is  our 
inquiry  as  we  study  the  words  that  came  from  him. 
To  read  such  words,  shutting  off  God  above  and 
the  Christian  centuries  beyond,  and  to  ask  only 
how  they  and  the  men  of  their  time  would  under- 
stand them,  may  be  good  secular  scholarship,  but 
it  is  not  biblical  scholarship.  It  will  do  in  other 
history  with  merely  secular  documents  as  its  basis, 
but  not  here.  Here,  to  leave  out  the  inspiration 
of  God,  is  to  seek  sunlight  by  ignoring  the  sun. 

Caiaphas  uttered  a  prophecy.  He  meant  one 
thing  by  it,  God  meant  another.     He  intended  to 

197 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

incite  to  murder.     God's  spirit  in  the  record  ex- 
plains the  profound  intimation  of  Christ's  sacrificial 
death  given  through  the  official  head  of  the  Hebrew 
hierarchy.     **  This  he  spake  not  of  himself,   but 
being  high   priest  that  year,  he  prophesied  that 
Jesus  should  die  for  that  nation,  and  not  for  that 
nation  only,  but  that  also  he  should  gather  together 
in  one  the  children  of  God  that  were  scattered 
abroad."     In  this  case  at  least  the  inspiration  must 
have  extended  to  the  words  themselves.     It  shows 
God's  choice  of  an  author,  Caiaphas.     It  shows  a 
thought  in  God's  mind  wholly  different  from  that 
in  the  mind  of  the  human  author.     This  instance, 
though  peculiar  in  some  aspects,  is  singularly  in- 
structive as  a  whole.     It  is  a  passage  urged  with 
great  force  by  those  who  would  put  a  special  em- 
phasis on  inspiration  as  found  mainly  in  the  words. 
They  urge  that  in  this  instance  and  in  a  few  others 
in  which  bad  men  are  divinely  inspired  we  are 
shown  that  inspiration  is  sometimes  in  the  language 
rather  than  in  the  man,  and  that  the  divine  au- 
thority is   co-extensive  with    the   writing.     They 
urge  that  the  only  instance  in  which  the  specific 
word  ''inspiration"  occurs,  names  not  the  thought 
but  the  writing;  that  it  is  the  ''scripture,"  i.  e. 
the  writing,  and  not  the  sense  of  it,  that  is  "God- 
inspired."     It   may  be  true  that    the  words    are 
usually  accompanied  by  the  thought  on  the  part 
of  the  writer,  but  not  always  so,  and  not  in  any 
case  necessarily  so.^     And  yet  may  not  these  few 

^  Those  who  hold  to  "verbal"  inspiration,  i.  e.,  inspiration  of 
words,  are  wont  to  quote  the  opening  words  of  Leviticus,  "And 
Jehovah  called  unto  Moses,"  the  word  denotes  " speaking  with 

198 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

instances  be  unduly  pressed  ?  May  they  not  be 
''the  exception  that  proves  the  rule"?  They 
simply  do  not  show  the  usual  process  of  divine 
inspiration  through  a  sympathetic  soul.  And  if 
the  general  language  of  the  Bible  in  such  phrases 
as  "  thus  saith  the  Lord  "  would  at  first  reading 
seem  to  lay  an  emphasis  upon  words,  it  by  no 
means  excludes  the  underlying  thought.  Possibly 
we  cannot  have  a  theory  broad  enough  to  cover 
every  instance.  We  are  not  bound  to  have  any 
theory  that  is  hard  and  fast  on  this  subject.  We 
see  facts.  We  trace  a  trend.  The  trend  is  from 
God.  Dr.  Garbett  (Boyle  Lectures,  1 862)  says  : 
*'  The  kind  of  this  divine  guidance  may  vary  in 
the  different  portions  of  the  written  word.  But  it 
can  never  be  lacking  to  any  part.  The  divine  in- 
spiration will  not  be  found  in  portions  here  and 
there,  but  like  the  human  element  it  will  be  every- 
where in  such  a  book  recording  such  a  series  of 
facts  as  is  the  Bible.  The  one  all-pervading  ele- 
ment is  as  needful  as  the  other;  nor  in  such  a 


an  audible  voice."  If  this  be  allowed,  then  the  method  in  this 
particular  book  is  that  of  direct  oral  dictation.  It  is  claimed  that 
this  is  primarily  an  inspiration  of  words,  and  only  secondarily  of 
thought.  But  the  further  question  of  the  inspiration  of  the  writing 
out  of  these  inspired  words  which  had  been  dictated  is  still  open. 
And  such  usage  in  one  case  would  not  settle  the  question  in  other 
cases.  And  yet  the  whole  book  of  Leviticus  is  dictated,  except 
in  two  brief  episodes,  viz.,  the  consecration  of  Aaron  and  the 
punishment  of  two  priests.  Perhaps  this  case,  so  unlike  that 
usual  elsewhere  in  which  reason,  memory,  judgment,  and  person- 
ality are  all  employed,  will  best  illustrate  the  view  urged  in  a 
former  chapter,  that  no  one  theory  of  inspiration  can  be  carried 
consistently  through  the  entire  Bible.  Trend  covers  all  theories 
with  its  recognition  of  each  of  them  as  having  an  element  of. 
truth. 

199 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

book  can  you  have  the  one  without  the  other. 
The  divine  element,  or  the  part  belonging  to  God 
in  the  composition  of  the  sacred  Scripture,  is  to 
be  maintained  with  equal  distinctness. 

"This  divine  element  includes  (i)  the  selection 
of  the  writers,  with  their  special  peculiarities  of 
circumstance  and  character  for  their  given  work, 
and  their  education  for  it ;  (2)  their  instruction  in 
the  subject-matter  of  their  writings,  alike  by  the 
revelation  of  what  was  previously  unknown  to 
them,  by  the  verification  of  knowledge  possessed 
by  them  through  ordinary  human  channels,  and 
by  the  selection  of  the  things  to  be  written  and 
the  things  to  be  omitted  from  the  writing.  As  a 
general  rule  the  sacred  writers  were  conscious  and 
intelligent  agents,  understanding  more  or  less  per- 
fectly the  meaning  of  their  own  message;  but 
cases  have  been  specifically  excepted  in  order  to 
prevent  our  limiting  the  sense  of  the  words  written 
by  the  intention  of  the  human  writers.  These 
two  instances  are  found  in  John  11:15  and  i 
Peter  i  :  1 1 . 

"  Hence  it  follows  that  the  divine  element  in- 
eludes  (3)  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  in  the  selection 
of  the  words  employed  by  the  sacred  writers.  If 
the  divine  inspiration  acted  only  in  communicating 
truth  to  the  sacred  writers,  and  did  not  extend  to 
their  communication  of  this  divinely  given  truth 
to  others,  it  is  certain  that  we  possess  only  a  human 
account  of  a  divine  revelation,  and  not  the  very 
revelation  itself.  The  veracity  of  the  truth  trans- 
mitted must  be  equivalent,  neither  more  nor  less, 
to  the  accuracy  of  the  words  which  convey  it ;   (4) 

200 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

it  involves  the  absolute  truth  of  all  the  things 
written.  Man  is  fallible,  and  liable  to  make  mis- 
takes ;  but  actually  to  make  mistakes  is  as  unneces- 
sary to  the  completeness  of  the  human  element  as 
not  to  make  mistakes  is  absolutely  essential  to  the 
divine.  The  Bible  may  be  truly  the  work  of  man, 
and  yet  be  true ;  but  if  it  be  not  certainly  true  it 
cannot  also  be  the  work  of  God.  The  concurrence 
of  the  human  part  of  Scripture  and  the  divine  part 
of  Scripture  is  thus  perfect  throughout.  It  is  not, 
however,  the  concurrence  of  two  equals,  but  of  a 
superior  and  an  inferior.  Man  is  necessarily  the 
subordinate  instrument  and  God  necessarily  the 
originating  and  controlling  agent.  Hence  it  follows 
that  as  the  existence  of  what  is  divine  in  Scripture 
is  no  sound  argument  against  its  being  human,  so 
the  existence  of  what  is  human  in  Scripture  is  no 
sound  argument  against  its  also  being  divine." 

In  a  former  section  the  claims  made  by  the 
Scriptures  themselves  to  a  divine  inspiration  have 
been  set  forth.  So  too  the  claims  of  the  New 
Testament  that  '^  all  Scripture,"  t.  e.,  Old  Testa- 
ment, *'  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,"  have  been 
cited.  Christ's  promise  to  inspire  has  been  ex- 
amined ;  and  the  declarations  of  apostolic  writers 
that  their  words  were  not  merely  human  but  the 
word  of  God,  have  been  perhaps  sufificiently 
quoted.  The  only  exception  alleged  is  that  in 
which  Paul  for  a  specific  thing  alleges  that  he 
speaks  rather  than  the  Lord,  t.  e.,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  But  he  is  applying  principles  in  which  one 
may  not  follow  unbending  rules  aside  from  circum- 
stances.    So  far  from  denying  his  own  inspiration, 

20I 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

he  asserts  that  the  Lord  allows  him  to  give  advice 
rather  than  command ;  that  some  things  the  Lord, 
t.  e.,  the  Lord  Jesus,  did  not  during  his  earthly 
life,  expressly  enjoin.  Indeed  the  whole  drift  of 
the  apostle  in  the  few  cases  cited  is  to  assert  in 
the  most  positive  form  his  inspiration  elsewhere 
as  direct ;  and  in  these  cases  to  assert  his  inspira- 
tion as  inspired  advice  in  matters  where  Jesus  had 
not  laid  down  express  commandment.  The  Holy 
Spirit  may  equally  inspire  both  command  and 
counsel. 

But  in  addition  to  the  direct  promises  of  Jesus,^ 
the  position  in  which  the  apostles  found  themselves 
as  representatives  of  the  new  religion  after  their 
Lord's  departure  is  one  of  such  singular  responsi- 
bility that  they  could  not  do  without  large  meas- 
ures of  the  inspiring  Spirit.  They  needed  this  in- 
spiration not  only  in  writing  but  in  planning  and 
in  directing.  This  was  their  constant  reliance  in 
their  work.  They  were  to  take  no  special  thought 
or  care,  but  it  was  to  be  given  them  what  to  say ; 
and  the  ground  of  this  singular  prohibition  and 
promise  was,  "  it  shall  be  the  Spirit  of  your  Father 
that  speaketh  in  you."  They  were  to  be  endued 
for  their  work  ''with  the  power  from   on   high." 


^The  promised  inspiration  to  apostles  is  recorded  in  John  14  : 
16,  17,  26  ;  15  :  26,  27  ;  16  :  13-15  ;  Acts  l  :  8  ;  Matt.  16  :  18, 
19  ;  18  :  18  ;  John  20  :  22,  23  ;  Matt.  lO  :  19,  20 ;  Mark  13  :  II  ; 
Luke  12  :  11,  12. 

The  corresponding  claims  of  the  apostles  may  be  found  in  such 
scriptures  as  Acts  4:8;  11  :  12  ;  15  :  28  ;  I  Peter  I  :  12;  Gal. 
I  :  11-24;  2  :  I-14;  I  Cor.  I  :  i  ;  I  Cor.  2  :  7,  10-13  ;  14  :  36, 
37;  2  Cor.  3  :  4-6;  Gal.  2  :  6-9;  2  Peter  3  :  15,  16;  Rev.  i  : 
10,  II. 

202 


THE    HUMAN    AND    THE    DIVINE    ELEMENTS 

The  time  when  they  should  ''  be  able  to  bear  it  " 
had  now  come,  and  Jesus  was  fulfilling  his  own 
promise  to  them  of  inspiration,  as  he  led  them 
"  into  all  truth."  Oral  speaking  as  well  as  written 
word  was  equally  included.  Of  the  two,  the  latter 
was  evidently  the  more  important.  A  mistake  in 
the  one  might  be  corrected,  but  documents  could 
not  be  amended.  The  writers  ask  credence  on  the 
ground  of  special  inspiration,  but  not  on  the 
ground  of  special  probity  or  of  peculiar  piety. 
The  idea  of  any  special  "genius  for  religion" 
seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  them.  They  talk 
constantly  of  being  "  led  by  the  Spirit "  in  the 
places  whither  they  go,  and  of  special  momentary 
direction  of  what  they  shall  speak.  The  tone  is 
unmistakable.  They  claim  that  those  who  are  of 
God  will  hear  them.  And  accordingly  the  early 
Christians  did  actually  receive  them  on  that  claim. 
It  was  not  that  they  were  mentally  and  morally 
above  others,  nor  their  writings  of  higher  literary 
or  moral  worth  in  themselves.  Their  writings 
were  accepted  and  honored  as  the  depositories  of 
God's  Spirit.  These  books  were  called  ''  Holy 
Scriptures,"  "  Divine  Scriptures,"  "  Scriptures  of 
the  Lord,"  ''Divine  Oracles,"  "Oracles  of  the 
Lord,"  "  Old  and  New  Oracles,"  "  Sacred  Foun- 
tains," etc.,  while  other  books  of  Christian  writers 
were  never  so  called.  All  the  early  sects  accepted 
certain  books  as  of  scriptural  authority.  All 
appealed  to  them  as  final,  on  the  ground  of  their 
inspiration.  The  phrase,  "  Thus  saith  the  Holy 
Spirit"  is  one  used  by  the  apostolic  Fathers  in 
quoting  these   books,   and  the  primitive  Fathers 

203 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

represent  denial  of  the  inspiration  of  these  books, 
whether  of  the  Old  or  the  New  Testament,  as  in- 
fidelity. This  acceptance  at  so  early  a  date  of 
these  writings  as  inspired  is  significant.  For  we 
can  understand  how  possibly  later  ages  might  have 
done  this,  when  centuries  of  veneration  had  gath- 
ered about  them.  But  that  the  very  generation 
which  heard  the  story,  and  those  immediately  suc- 
ceeding, should  have  so  done,  is  to  be  attributed 
to  two  things  :  the  universal  knowledge  that  this 
inspiration  had  been  promised  by  Christ,  and  that 
it  was  directly  claimed  by  these  writers.  And 
were  we  further  to  remember  that  it  was  no  easy 
thing  for  Jews,  even  for  converted  Jews,  to  put 
the  New  Testament  writers  on  the  same. level  with 
the  honored  prophets  of  their  lifelong  veneration, 
the  only  explanation  of  their  belief  was  that  they 
knew  the  broad  promise  and  were  ready  for  the 
broad  fulfillment. 


204 


CHAPTER  VI 

DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

There  are  difficulties  in  the  Bible.  These  diffi- 
culties are  urged  as  objections  to  its  inspiration. 
The  book  covers  long  centuries  in  which  there 
were  various  ways  of  computing  historic  times  and 
of  recording  historic  events.  It  uses  dissimilar 
literary  methods,  which  an  inexact  student  is  likely 
to  confuse.  It  employs  necessarily  the  peculiar 
forms  of  expression  which  were  known  in  the  time 
of  a  given  writer.  And  these  peculiar  expressions 
of  one  age  grew  to  be  somewhat  obscure  in  the 
next  ages,  and  in  a  few  centuries  they  formed  a 
difficulty  for  common  readers.  But  slowly  the 
students  of  the  Bible  and  of  contemporaneous 
documents  are  getting  to  see  that  these  very  diffi- 
culties are  really  confirmations.  The  objections 
change  sides  and  become  delightful  auxiliaries  of 
faith.  Some  still  remain  unsolved.  But  the  past 
experience  with  difficulties  more  vexing  than  any 
that  now  remain,  warrants  us  in  hoping,  in  all 
cases  now  existing,  for  a  happy  solution.  As  we 
get  back  in  our  thought  and  feeling  to  the  former 
times,  as  we  put  ourselves  in  the  places  of  the  men 
then  living,  we  get  abundant  confirmation  of  the 
authenticity  of  the  book,  a  better  guaranteed  belief 
that  it  was  written  in  the  times  and  circumstances 
which  it  claims  for  itself,  and  a  larger  faith  in  that 

205 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 


marvelous  trend  by  which  it  is  separated,  world- 
wide, from  all  other  literature. 

Some  of  these  difficulties,  which  carefully  con- 
sidered become  confirmations,  must  now  be 
noticed. 

This  element  in  the  Old  Testament  has  occa- 
sioned not  a  little  adverse  criticism.     God  speaks 
g^  ..      J  like  a  man.     He  does  not  at 

.    .,     "  T* »        all  times  accord  well  with  our 

Anthropomorpnism    .  ^      ^      ■,     i      tt        n       tt 
^         ^  later  standards.    He  walks.    He 

talks.  He  is  represented  as  if  having  a  body. 
He  repents.  He  grows  angry.  He  varies  in 
mood.  He  takes  pleasure  in  the  fragrance  of 
odors.  He  has  meats  set  before  him.  He  is  pro- 
pitiated by  blood.  He  smiles.  He  frowns.  He 
makes  choices  seemingly  capricious.  He  directs 
wars.  He  orders  slaughter ;  he  is  very  human.  It 
is  the  Homeric  and  the  ante-Homeric  method  of 
representing  the  participation  of  the  gods  in  the 
affairs  of  men.  The  tone  is  peculiar.  Jehovah 
may  have,  like  the  olden  gods,  a  heaven,  and  yet 
he  is  here  among  men  suddenly  and  swiftly  in  all 
their  extremities. 

But  let  any  student  of  the  old  Latin  or  Greek 
classics  tell  us  what  he  would  think  of  these  poems 
if  anthropomorphic  ways  of  speaking  had  been 
omitted.  The  absence  of  this  style  would  be 
positive  proof  that  the  said  poems  were  not  of  the 
date  ascribed  to  them.  These  ways  of  represen- 
tation are  the  literary  method  of  the  age.  They 
are  exactly  the  forms  of  speech  then  used.  They 
become  confirmations  of  the  alleged  age  in  which 

206 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 


the  poems  were  produced.  The  insertion  of 
modern  ways  of  speech  would  be  fatal  to  their 
genuineness.  In  like  manner  the  Bible  in  its 
older  parts  must  use  the  conceptions  of  the  older 
times.  In  no  other  way  could  those  ages  receive 
any  teaching  at  all.  It  was  necessary  to  begin  on 
their  literary  level  and  work  upward. 

But,  though  these  forms  of  speech  abound  in 
the  Bible,  the  conception  is  never  that  of  a  plural- 
ity of  gods.  One  God,  the  creator  of  the  heaven 
and  the  earth,  the  Sovereign  Ruler  of  things  and 
men,  is  the  uniform  presentation.  He  is  from  the 
outset  a  moral  God.  He  is  the  foe  of  wrong,  the 
friend  of  right.  Expressions  are  often  anthropo- 
morjDhic,  and  as  such  have  their  deficiency.  But 
it  is  not  moral  deficiency.  The  biblical  ideas  throb 
through  the  language  which  itself  would  restrict 
them.     Never  is  the  defectiveness  wrongfulness. 

Then  too,  consider  how  surely  the  childhood  of 
each  age  seizes  on  these  expressions  which  some 
would  condemn.  They  are  graphic  words  to  the 
boy.  He  must  have  them..  You  cannot  teach 
him  without  using  them.  They  get  hold  of  his 
head  and  heart.  They  are  the  best  for  him,  all 
things  considered.  He  will  find  objections  to 
them  by  and  by,  as  he  will  about  a  hundred  other 
forms  of  speech.  If  he  ever  becomes  a  student 
of  idiomatic  language,  the  old  familiar  figures  of 
speech  will  all  be  analyzed  by  him ;  and  every  one 
of  them  be  equally  faulty.  But  he  must  begin 
with  what  he  finds.  And  he  must  take  the 
methods  which  all  other  children  take  in  all  other 
ages,  when  they  begin  to  think  and  talk  of  God. 

207 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

Nor  will  the  boy  grown  to  manhood  ever  quite 
decline  to  use  this  language.  He  may  fill  it  full 
of  spiritual  meaning,  but  he  will  retain  the  old 
anthropomorphic  forms.  In  prayer  the  grown 
man  will  be  obliged  to  use  them.  He  will  ask 
God  to  <*look  down  propitiously,"  "to  bend  his 
ear,"  "to  lift  up  the  light  of  his  countenance," 
"to  reach  out  his  hand,"  "to  bestow  his  blessing," 
"to  guard,"  "to  watch," — all  of  which  are  anthro- 
pomorphic words.  So  too  it  is  with  all  those  men- 
tal and  moral  phrases  derived  from  our  own  human 
faculties  and  ascribed  to  God.  We  are  his  image  in 
mind  and  soul ;  and  though  in  the  progress  of  ideas 
we  get  a  broader  conception  and  fuller  expression, 
we  do  not  so  much  leave  the  older  forms  of  language 
behind  as  give  them  new  richness  through  better 
spiritualization.  In  the  New  Testament  we  find 
their  use  continued.  And  while  their  graphic  force 
is  not  lessened,  they  are  infused  with  a  more  gra- 
cious meaning.  The  newer,  fuller  conception  ani- 
mates the  old  words.  The  tendency  is  always  to 
larger  and  better  conceptions  of  God.  The  im- 
perfect was  not  the  erroneous  in  the  olden  time. 
It  serves  to-day  as  the  large  outline  to  be  filled  out 
by  the  same  spirit  in  the  new  dispensation. 

Difficulties   about  historical    time    do   certainly 
exist    in  all    old    literature — the    Bible    not    ex- 
cepted.     In  a  book  made  up  as 

°^  a  connected  history  but  by  ap- 
propriating all  forms  of  literary  work,  these  diffi- 
culties are  largely  increased.     The  date  of  events 

208 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

and  the  time  of  their  records  are  very  distinct 
matters  of  inquiry ;  and  yet  often  the  differences, 
while  not  of  the  least  moral  importance,  are  fair 
questions  for  literary  criticism.  Sometimes,  how- 
ever, large  moral  questions  are  involved  in  this 
matter  of  dates.  Not  infrequently  there  are 
widely  different  ways  of  reckoning  time  in  the 
documents  which  supplied  the  material  for  the 
writers.  Persian  and  Babylonian,  Assyrian  and 
Egyptian  dates  are  given,  each  starting  from  a  dif- 
ferent point,  each  computed  in  a  different  way. 
Occasionally  '* round  numbers"  are  used  in  a 
speech,  and  the  orator's  words  are  taken  down  and 
so  are  liable  to  be  considered  as  chronologically, 
rather  than  oratorically,  accurate.  The  Hebrew 
nation  had  not  itself  always  the  same  way  of  not- 
ing the  day  and  the  hour,  while  much  that  occurred 
before  that  national  life  began  has  only  some  gen- 
eral claim  to  historic  order.  The  writers  had  the 
Semitic  carefulness  about  facts  and  carelessness 
about  dates.  Even  in  the  New  Testament  the 
Gospel  writers  sometimes  mass  their  material  so  as 
to  set  forth  a  peculiar  aspect  of  Christ,  so  as  to  pre- 
sent him  now  as  the  miracle  worker  and  now  as 
the  moral  teacher.  The  Gospels  are  historic  in 
form,  but  they  are  memorabilia  in  fact.  The 
writers  gather  incidents  in  a  fair,  general  order; 
not,  indeed,  confusing  years,  but  still  leaving  open 
the  question,  in  one  case  at  least,  as  to  what  "  feast " 
is  meant  in  a  given  verse.  Questions  of  harmony 
seem  never  to  have  been  considered  ;  and  orderly 
arrangement,  in  some  cases,  is  evidently  subor- 
dinate to  the  special  object  of  the  writer. 
o  209 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

But  in  the  older  parts  of  the  Old  Testament 
this  negligence  of  dates  in  important  matters 
seems  very  strange  until  we  put  ourselves  back  in 
the  place  of  the  writers.  The  method  of  record 
seems  to  be  that  of  the  simple  graphic  statement 
of  a  fact.  The  time  of  the  occurrence  is  often 
assumed  as  known  to  the  men  who  first  saw  the 
narration.  And  even  when  the  Pentateuch  is  left 
there  are  historic  difficulties.  The  only  wonder  is 
that  we  do  not  find  more.  Take  a  single  instance 
which  shows  the  liability  to  mistake  in  the  writing 
of  numbers.  In  i  Samuel  6  :  19  we  read  of  "fifty 
thousand  threescore  and  ten  men,"  where  it  is  im- 
possible that  there  should  have  been  any  such 
number.  But  the  Hebrew  and  Arabic  languages 
permit  us  to  write  first  the  units  and  then  the 
tens  and  then  the  hundreds,  or  to  reverse  the 
order,  and  to  write  the  highest  first.  Hence  it  is 
equally  competent  to  write  "seventy"  and  "fifty" 
and  "a  thousand" — which  may  mean  either  as 
given  in  our  version,  or  it  may  mean  simply  one 
thousand  one  hundred  and  seventy.  In  such  lati- 
tude of  usage  there  is  immense  liability  to  sad 
over-statements  in  translation.^ 

A  considerable  number  of  alleged  inaccuracies 

^  In  a  note  on  i  Samuel  6,  by  Dr.  Kirkpatrick,  in  ' '  Cambridge 
Bible,"  we  read:  "Such  errors  as  this,  to  which  the  text  of  any 
ancient  book  is  liable  in  process  of  transmission,  do  not  affect  the 
general  trustworthiness  of  the  narrative  ;  and  the  freest  acknowledg- 
ment of  them  in  no  way  precludes  the  full  belief  in  the  inspiration 
of  the  Scriptures." 

In  view  of  instances  like  this,  Dr.  J.  R.  Thompson  says: 
"Chronology  is  peculiarly  difficult  when  we  have  to  do  with 
Oriental  modes  of  computation,  which  are  essentially  different  from 
ours. ' ' 

2IO 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

have  been  pointed  out  by  men  hospitable  to  objec- 
tions. But  most  reverent  and  thoughtful  students, 
taking  into  view  all  the  facts,  will  find  their  num- 
ber greatly  reduced.  Of  these  one,  one  only,  is 
still  to  many  a  stumbling-block.  Acts  7:  14-16 
is  held  by  some  to  be  a  statement  clearly  errone- 
ous on  its  face.  But  even  if  this  solitary  instance 
were  utterly  inexplicable,  it  would  by  no  means 
follow  that  some  missing  factor  may  not  yet  be 
found,  as  in  the  case  of  other  difficulties  which 
vexed  us  half  a  century  ago.  To  call  in  question 
the  accuracy  and  inspiration  of  all  the  other  books 
of  the  Bible  because  of  a  mistake  which  is  possibly 
ours  and  not  that  of  the  Scripture,  were  certainly 
unjust.  And  even  in  this  case,  there  may  be 
found  a  solution,  if  we  shall  grant  that  the  words 
are  so  evident  and  palpable  a  verbal  inaccuracy  as 
to  stand  out  as  such  alike  to  the  speaker  and  to 
those  who  heard  him.  For  the  speaker  is  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  the  real  facts  as  they  lie  on 
the  face  of  the  story  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  hearers  of  Stephen  knew  them  as  well  as  he. 
He  speaks  freely,  generally,  without  the  idea  that 
a  single  hearer  will  contradict  him.  He  clearly 
speaks  what  they  believe.  And  even  if  he  had 
spoken  erroneously,  Luke,  who  records  the  speech, 
knew  the  facts  of  the  biblical  history.  In  some 
way  or  other  the  Old  and  the  New  stories  must  be 
harmonious  to  such  persons.  The  greatness  of  the 
mistake  shows  that  it  can  have  no  argumentative 
weight.  In  some  familiarity  of  speech,  generally 
accepted  by  the  people  of  Stephen's  time,  he 
spoke;  and  in  the   same  familiarity  they  heard. 

211 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

The  chief  inaccuracies  alleged  are  (i)  seventy- 
five  persons  are  named,  when  only  seventy  are 
given  in  Genesis  46 :  27.  There  is  a  suggested 
explanation  in  the  fact  that  Joseph  may  have 
"called  for"  seventy-five  to  go  to  Egypt,  not 
knowing  of  the  death  of  Jacob's  wives  and  that  of 
Judah's  sons.  So  too,  if  the  Septuagint  was 
quoted  by  Stephen,  it  may  have  added  the  sons  of 
Ephraim  and  Manasseh.  The  number  ''  called 
for  "  in  one  narrative  and  the  number  that  actually 
"went  down  into  Egypt"  are  respectively  seventy- 
five  and  seventy.  Each  writer  tells  of  the  same 
transaction  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  differing 
years.  So  seen,  the  discrepancy  becomes  a  con- 
firmation. The  more  of  such  "  mistakes  "  the  better 
when  we  see  the  seventeen  years  and  the  changed 
facts  which  intervene.  Says  another  :  "  The  idea 
of  mistake  is  excluded  by  the  fact  that  both  num- 
bers, seventy  and  seventy-five,  were  known  to  the 
Jews.  Philo  mentions  them  and  moralizes  accord- 
ing to  his  fashion  on  both  the  numbers.  The 
Septuagint  (the  Greek  translation  of  the  Old 
Testament  made  between  300  and  250  b.  c.) 
gives  the  number  seventy-five  in  Genesis  46  :  27, 
where  the  Hebrew  speaks  of  seventy.  This 
number  the  Greek  translators  have  made  up  by 
adding,  in  verse  20,  to  the  sons  of  Joseph,  grand- 
children and  great  grandchildren  to  the  number  of 
five,  thus  making  the  whole  seventy-five  instead  of 
seventy.  Now,  why  should  they  change  the  num- 
ber in  the  Hebrew  original  ?  And  why,  having 
changed  it,  should  they  mass  the  descendants  of 
Joseph  together  in  this  way  ?     If  they  must  alter, 

2T2 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

why  not  take  Jiidah  or  Levi,  the  two  tribes  we 
might  have  expected  to  be  specially  favored  ?  The 
answer  to  this  question  solves  our  difficulty. 
There  was  evidently  another  and  more  usual  reck- 
oning among  the  people  than  the  number  given  in 
Genesis,  and  the  Greek  translators  altered  the 
reading  to  suit  it.  Seventy  was  the  number  when 
Jacob  went  down  to  Egypt.  But  seventeen  years 
afterward,. when  he  was  dying,  the  great  father  of 
the  race  altered  the  arrangement  of  the  tribes 
(See  Gen.  48  :  5,  6.) 

"  The  consequence  of  this  new  disposition  of  the 
tribes  was  that  Manasseh  and  Ephraim  were  placed 
among  the  great  fathers  of  the  race  ;  and  that,  just 
as  the  immediate  descendants  of  the  other  patri- 
archs who  were  living  at  the  time  of  the  going 
down  into  Egypt  were  numbered,  so  the  descend- 
ants of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  alive  at  the  time 
when  Jacob  gave  them  this  inheritance,  were  also 
numbered  and  added  to  the  previous  seventy. 
These  were  five,  and  we  are  indebted  to  the  Septu- 
agint  for  having  preserved  their  names.  Sev- 
enty-five in  this  way  displaced  in  the  traditions  of 
Israel  the  seventy  of  the  reckoning  in  Gen.  46  : 
27. 

*'  The  recollection  of  the  honor  done  to  Joseph 
was  kept  alive  by  God  throughout  the  ages.  The 
references  to  it  in  Scripture  are  frequent.  In 
Psalm  J']  \  15,  we  read,  'Thou  hast  with  thine  arm 
redeemed  thy  people,  the  sons  of  Jacob  and 
Joseph.'  It  will  be  noted  how  the  sons  of  Joseph 
are  set  here  alongside  the  sons  of  Jacob  as  form- 
ing  the   great   assembly  of   the   people  of  God. 

21-? 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

They  are  two  bands,  the  one  taking  its  place  by 
descent,  the  other  by  grace.  In  i  Chron.  5  :  1,2, 
we  learn  that  Jacob's  gift  was  the  bestowal  of  a 
lapsed  birthright,  Reuben  had  lost  it  by  his  sin  : 
'  his  birthright  was  given  unto  the  sons  of  Joseph, 
the  son  of  Israel.' 

*'  Now  Stephen's  argument  necessarily  led  him  to 
take  the  number  which  told  especially  of  Joseph's 
triumph.  The  story  of  Joseph  is  a  parallel  to  that 
of  Jesus.  He  was  rejected  by  his  brethren,  and 
yet,  among  those  very  brethren,  this  great  place 
was  at  last  accorded  to  him.  This  difficulty,  there- 
fore, like  many  another,  was  an  indication  of  the 
existence  of  a  neglected  truth ;  and  the  supposed 
mistake  is  simply  a  proof  of  the  clear  and  vivid 
thought  by  which  that  great  speech  of  his  is 
throughout  inspired."  ^ 

Another  inaccuracy  from  the  same  speech  is 
the  alleged  "burial  of  Jacob  at  Sychem,  whereas 
in  Gen.  49,  it  is  said  that  he  was  buried  at  He- 
bron." But  the  words  are  in  the  plural,  ''were 
carried  over  and  laid"  and  the  Revised  version 
reads  :  ''  They  " — the  bones  of  the  fathers — ''  were 
carried  over  and  laid."  Nor  is  there  anything  in 
either  Testament  to  the  contrary.  The  carrying 
of  the  bones  to  Sychem  is  affirmed  by  Jewish  tra- 
dition and  was  a  matter  of  belief  in  the  days  of 
Stephen. 

Another  alleged  inaccuracy  in  the  story  is  the 
substitution  of  the  word  Abraham  for  Jacob  in  the 
speech  as  given  by  Luke.     But   it  must  be  re- 

^  Rev.  J.  Urquart,  in  "Preacher's  Magazine,"  May,  1894. 

214 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

membered  that  the  Jews  of  that  age — witness  also 
the  respective  and  disagreeing  genealogies  in 
Matthew  and  Luke — were  fond  of  giving  their 
own  well-known  history  in  rapid  sketches,  in  brief 
formulas,  in  which,  as  in  the  tables  of  genealogy, 
events  were  quoted  in  series  of  equal  numbers. 
An  ancestor,  sometimes  remote,  gives  name  to 
what  was  done  by  descendants.  This  method  of 
speaking,  which  causes  us  a  difficulty,  was  nothing 
of  the  sort  to  that  age,  when  the  Jews  were  re- 
hearsing the  well-known  national  history.  Dr. 
Hackett  names  the  theory  of  Davidson  that  there 
was  a  verbal  error  in  Stephen's  speech,  which  the 
accurate  Luke  perpetuates,  though  knowing  it  to 
be  such,  so  intent  is  he  in  recording  exactly  what 
Stephen  did  say  on  that  occasion.  "  It  is,  how- 
ever," says  Hackett,  ''difficult  to  resist  the  impres- 
sion that  a  single  word  of  the  present  text  is 
wrong."  In  such  a  case,  those  described  by  Dr. 
E.  G.  Robinson  as  "  over-anxious  to  recognize 
what  they  call  ignorance  or  prejudice  on  the  part 
of  the  writers  of  the  Scriptures,"  have  their  choice 
instance.  But  thousands  of  careful  and  scholarly 
men  would  rather  see  here,  as  in  the  text  of 
other  ancient  authors,  an  error  by  some  copyist  in 
transcribing  the  book — an  error  which  faithful 
care  on  the  part  of  subsequent  transcribers  has 
continued,  because  they  have  not  dared  to  tamper 
with  an  inspired  text.  Whatever  of  difficulty 
exists  in  this  single  instance — and  it  is  the  most 
conspicuous  and  least  explicable  of  any — it  should 
not  be  allowed  to  throw  any  shadow  over  other 
parts  of  the   Scriptures.     Can  there  be  any  real 

215 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

shadow  in  the  case  of  a  man  who  is  dying,  and 
who  is  "filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost"?  Certainly 
the  trend  of  a  divine  inspiration  is  in  Stephen. 
He  is,  if  we  must  grant  it,  half  oblivious  to  mathe- 
matical accuracy;  but  his  great  overmastering 
thought  in  his  address  is  that  some  seventy  or 
seventy-five  souls  have  increased  to  an  immense 
number,  and  out  of  them  Christ  has  come;  that 
Joseph's  seed  has  produced  Jesus;  that  the  ante- 
type  has  had  its  fulfillment  in  the  "  Holy  and  Just 
One,"  of  whom  the  Jews  ''are  the  betrayers  and 
murderers."  His  discourse  is  full  of  the  trend  of 
things.  He  sees  the  Holy  Ghost  as  guiding  events 
and  men.  He  claims  a  divine  ordering  of  events 
from  first  to  last  in  the  sketch  of  Hebrew  history 
which  he  gives  his  auditors  that  day. 

About  these  various   readings  it   may  well  be 
claimed  that  we  are  not  at  the  end  of  our  difficul- 
ties, and  claimed,  just  as  fully. 
Section  III.  ^j^^^   -j^  ^j^g-j.  g^^j     ^YievQ  are 

Various  Readings     ^^^^  resulting  confirmations. 

In  Westcott  and  Hort's  introduction  to  "  The 
New  Testament  in  the  Original  Greek,"  Vol.  II., 
pages  2  and  3,  we  read : 

With  regard  to  the  great  bulk  of  the  words  of  the  New 
Testament,  as  of  other  ancient  writings,  there  is  no  varia- 
tion or  other  ground  of  doubt.  The  same  may  be  said  with 
substantial  truth  of  those  various  readings  which  never  have 
been  received,  and  in  all  probability  never  will  be  received, 
into  any  printed  text.  The  proportion  of  words  virtually 
accepted  on  all  hands  is  not  less  than  seven-eighths  of  the 
whole.  The  remaining  eighth,  therefore,  formed  in  great 
part  by  changes  of  order  and  comparative  triviality,  con- 

216 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

stitutes  the  whole  area  of  criticism.  Setting  aside  difficul- 
ties in  spelling,  they  make  up  one-sixtieth  of  the  whole  New 
Testament.  Setting  aside  the  comparatively  trivial  varia- 
tions in  this  last  estimate,  the  substantial  variations  can 
hardly  be  more  than  a  thousandth  part  of  the  entire  text 
An  exaggerated  impression  prevails  as  to  the  extent  of  pos- 
sible textual  corruption  ;  and  we  desire  to  make  it  clearly 
understood  how  much  of  the  New  Testament  stands  in  no 
need  of  a  "textual  critic's"  labors. 

Of  course  no  inspiration  is  claimed  for  the  very 
many  transcribers  who  have  undertaken  to  copy 
the  original  manuscripts,  nor  for  those  who  copied 
from  copies.  No  inspiration  is  claimed  for  printers 
of  modern  editions  of  the  Bible.  An  instance  of 
absolutely  perfect  printing  in  the  case  of  so  large 
a  book  as  the  Bible  is  unknown.  Some  error  of 
spelling  or  punctuation,  some  mistake  of  word  for 
word,  or  of  letter  for  letter  in  numerals,  is  sure  to 
be  made.  Even  in  the  photographic  processes  of 
securing  reprints  of  English  books  for  American 
publishers,  the  slight  angle  of  difference  has  ob- 
scured and  obliterated  some  words.  Those  familiar 
with  such  subjects  laugh  at  the  alarm  felt  by  others 
who  have  never  examined  this  class  of  facts.  Says 
President  Hopkins :  ''  By  all  the  omissions  and  all 
the  additions  contained  in  all  the  manuscripts  no 
fact  is  rendered  obscure  or  doubtful."  Says  Bent- 
ley  :  **  By  none  of  these  variations,  etc.,  shall  one 
be  able  to  extinguish  the  light  of  a  chapter  or  so 
disguise  Christianity  but  that  every  feature  of  it 
will  be  the  same."  Says  Maury:  "  In  my  investi- 
gations of  natural  phenomena  when  I  can  meet 
anything  in  the  Bible  it  affords  me  a  firm  platform 
on  which  to  stand." 

217 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

The  unintelligibleness  of  the  Bible  is  frequently 
alleged.     It  seems  to  be  assumed  that  if  the  Bible 

is  to  make  the  truth  clear,  every 
Section  IV.  ^^.^  ^j  -^  should  be  easily  un- 

Unintelligibleness  ^erstood.  But  the  question 
arises  at  once,  "  By  whom  should  every  part  of  it 
be  understood  ?  "  Surely  a  man  who  comes  to  it 
with  scanty  knowledge  of  history,  will  not  by 
opening  the  Bible  at  any  place,  become  a  fair  judge 
about  a  historic  allusion.  Surely  one  may  not  de- 
mand that  the  Bible  shall  be  so  plain  in  every  state- 
ment that  no  man  shall  ever  make  a  mistake  about 
it.  That  would  be  to  demand  a  miracle  in  the  case 
of  every  person  of  the  race  as  he  opens  this  book. 
How  can  a  book  that  runs  through  the  centuries, 
and  is  the  production  of  men  most  subtile  as 
philosophers,  most  imaginative  as  poets,  most 
gifted  as  prophets,  most  logical  as  reasoners — 
how  can  such  a  book  be  intelligible,  at  the  outset, 
to  every  reader  ?  All  things  in  it  are  not  equally 
evident  even  to  men  of  ordinary  intelligence. 
Certain  fundamental  truths  stand  out  clearly. 
Duty  demanded  by  the  claims  of  God  is  obvious, 
even  to  a  child.  He  can  see  the  way  into  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

But  the  book  is  also  for  those  beyond  childhood, 
and  beyond  "ordinary  intelligence,"  Progressive 
is  the  revelation  in  the  book,  and  progressive  is  to 
be  our  understanding  of  it.  Only  in  subsequent 
ages  can  much  in  the  Bible  become  intelligible  to 
the  most  earnest  students  and  the  most  spiritual 
men.  The  book  can  only  be  fully  understood  when 
the  history  of  the  race  on  earth  is  completed  and 

218 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

surveyed  from  the  heights  of  glory.  Many  a  man 
has  texts  laid  by  for  the  coming  life ;  truths  be- 
lieved on  abundant  testimony,  but  only  partially 
understood  and  awaiting  the  clearer  light  of  the 
unveiled  countenance  of  God.  The  book  goes 
beyond  this  world.  It  is  known  now  only  in  its 
beginnings.  So  that  the  mysteries  are  to  a  certain 
degree  the  proofs,  and  the  gradual  unveiling  here 
indicates  that  it  is  a  book  that  will  bear  the  search- 
ing light  of  an  eternity  with  God.  Intelligible  on 
some  practical  points,  its  very  unintelligibility  on 
others  shows  the  inbreathing  of  God.  The  book 
of  earth,  it  is  the  book  of  heaven.  It  foretells 
disclosures.  The  known  makes  us  welcome  the 
unknown,  because  the  unknown  is  to  be  the  known. 
Alike  by  what  it  reveals  and  by  what  it  conceals 
we  mark  the  inspiring  trend. 

A  large  number  of  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, especially  of  those  relating  to  the  coming  of 
Christ,  have  not  been  fulfilled. 
Our  Lord  did  not  come  in  any         .p.^y'^^^ 
such  majesty  as  was  there  de-         Uniulnilea 
picted.     He  was  owned  as  Lord  ^      ^ 

only  by  a  very  few  persons  and  never  by  the  Hebrew 
State.  His  dominion  was  not  so  extensive  as  therein 
declared.  That  he  fulfilled  some  predictions  is  clear. 
And  these  predictions  became  actual  history  not 
only  in  their  general  spirit,  but  many  of  them  were 
very  minutely  accomplished.  The  prophecies  re- 
lated to  such  matters  as  his  bones,  as  when  it  was 
said,  ''  Not  a  bone  of  him  shall  be  broken"  ;  to  his 
dress,  as  when  it  was  said  of  it,  "  Upon  my  vesture 

219 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

did  they  cast  lots."  It  would  sometimes  seem  as 
though  the  evangelists  dwelt  more  on  the  great 
number  of  minute  and  verbal  prophecies  having  a 
strictly  literal  fulfillment,  than  upon  the  general 
scope  and  tone  of  prophetic  revelation,  on  which 
we  to-day  place  so  much  stress.  And  this  minute- 
ness of  prediction  has  been  urged  as  strong  objec- 
tion to  the  biblical  inspiration.  The  unfulfilled 
portions  of  these  prophecies  are  so  many  that  all 
of  them  have  been  called  by  an  objector,  ''  random 
predictions,  some  of  which  were  sure  of  fulfillment, 
while  others  have  completely  failed." 

But  some  of  these  prophecies  are  as  broad  as 
the  whole  future  history  of  the  world.  They  can- 
not yet  be  fulfilled.  But  those  prophecies  which 
have  already  become  history  are  but  the  first-fruits 
and  so  are  the  earnest  of  those  which  await  fulfill- 
ment. 

We  are  living  in  a  time  when  so  much  has  been 
made  of  the  alleged  ''  prophecies,"  meaning  thereby 
the  strange  guesses  some  have  ventured  on  the  ob- 
scure Book  of  Revelation,  that  there  is  a  wide- 
spread reaction ;  and  the  exact  and  the  literal  ful- 
fillment of  Old  Testament  prophecy  is  liable  to  be 
received  with  some  degree  of  discount.  We  are 
finding  the  whole  Old  Testament  generally  pre- 
dictive rather  than  its  separate  verses  especially 
prophetic.  We  are  putting  emphasis — not  too 
much,  but  too  exclusively — on  the  prophetic  tone 
of  every  part  of  the  older  Scriptures. 

But  surely  the  directly  prophetic  words  about 
the  old  cities  of  the  Bible,  relating  as  they  do  to 
the  minutest  things,  are  not  to  be  set  aside.     The 

220 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 


argument  from  fulfilled  prophecy  is  to  some  minds 
the  strongest  proof  they  have  of  the  inspiration  of 
the  Bible.  Some  men  are  so  made  as  to  look  no 
further  for  evidence,  when  once  they  have  seen  the 
fulfillment  of  the  very  word  of  ancient  prophecy. 

God  said,  '*  I  will  utterly  destroy  the  tongue  of 
the  Egyptian  Sea."  And  Goshen  once  fruitful 
and  beautiful  has  seen  centuries  of  sterility,  so  that 
not  a  town  or  city  was  found  upon  it  until  the 
Suez  canal  was  dug ;  and  students  of  Egyptology 
have  seen  with  amazement  the  exact  and  literal 
fulfillment  of  this  prophecy.  So  too,  the  whole 
long  series  of  prophecies  about  Noph,  or  Memphis, 
is  distinguished  for  minuteness  of  detail.  *'  Noph 
shall  be  without  an  inhabitant,"  said  the  prophet. 
It  was  a  royal  city,  embracing  a  circuit  of  fifteen 
miles,  the  center  of  luxury,  the  pride  of  Egypt, 
But  to-day  not  a  human  being  resides  in  Noph. 
**  Noph  shall  be  desolate,"  said  the  prophet.  Not 
a  building  stands  in  Noph.  And  while  from  their 
ruins  the  temples  of  Thebes,  the  other  capital,  can 
be  restored  on  paper,  any  such  restoration  is  im- 
possible for  Memphis.  "  Noph  shall  be  laid  waste," 
said  the  prophet  again  ;  tracing  thus  the  successive 
stages  of  her  overthrow.  "You  will  walk,"  says 
another,  "  for  miles  through  layers  of  bones  and 
skulls  and  mummy  swathings."  Where  once  were 
fruitful  gardens,  the  desert  sands  have  invaded  the 
soil  and  laid  all  waste.  And  yet,  close  by,  the  soil 
is  grandly  fertile  in  contrast  with  wasted  Noph. 

God  said  of  Egypt  as  a  whole,  ''I  will  lay  her 
waste  by  the  hands  of  strangers."  There  came 
speedily  "the  stranger."     Eirst,  Nebuchadnezzar, 

221 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

with  his  Babylonians ;  then  the  Persians ;  then 
the  Greeks  ;  then  the  Romans.  Then  came  the 
hordes  of  Constantinople ;  then  the  years  of  the 
Saracens  ;  then  the  Mamelukes  ;  then  the  Turks  ; 
then  in  modern  days,  the  French  ;  then  the  Eng- 
lish *'  stranger,"  the  whole  land  being  virtually 
mortgaged  to  Great  Britain  to-day  for  the  payment 
of  the  "Egyptian  Bonds."  And  God  said,  ''  there 
shall  be  no  more  a  prince  from  the  land  of  Egypt." 
From  a  date  older  than  authentic  history,  always  a 
"prince";  from  the  time  of  the  Persian  conquest, 
never  an  Egyptian  prince  has  ruled  Egypt.  But 
when  the  prophetic  words  were  said  the  ruling 
dynasty  of  Egypt  was  the  most  ancient  and  stable 
on  the  earth. 

There  is  the  same  startling  minuteness  in  the 
special  and  peculiar  predictions  about  Babylon. 
The  successive  steps  of  the  sieges  and  the  widely 
different  methods  to  be  employed  by  the  conquer- 
ors of  ancient  Tyre  are  another  marvel.  The  fill- 
ing up  of  the  strait  between  the  island  and  the 
mainland,  the  failures  at  one  point,  the  success  at 
another  during  the  final  siege,  are  all  predicted. 
So  too,  it  is  with  those  prophecies  concerning 
Jerusalem  as  a  city  and  Palestine  as  a  land.  They 
are  almost  microscopic  in  their  detail.  They  read 
like  history,  though  uttered  in  some  cases  centuries 
before  the  fulfillment.  "What  is  the  strongest 
proof  of  the  Bible  ? "  said  Frederick  the  Great  to 
a  courtier.  "  Sire,  the  Jews,"  was  the  instant 
reply.  There  is  a  series  of  prophecies  concerning 
Amalek,  Nineveh,  Babylon,  Sidon,  the  Moabites, 
the  Ammonites,  the  Philistines,  the  Chaldean  mon- 

222 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

archy,  the  Macedonian  empire,  and  the  Roman 
power.  Often  the  things  predicted  are  circum- 
stances so  unique  as  to  be  utterly  beyond  an  unin- 
spired ken.  And  the  predictions  about  Christ,  so 
varied,  so  peculiar,  so  minute  and  yet  so  broad, 
covering  the  scenes  of  his  career  from  the  manger 
to  the  ascension,  are  as  far  as  possible  from  "  for- 
tunate guesses  and  general  statements."  The 
Gospel  writers  point  out  a  very  large  number  of 
these  most  unlikely  fulfillments  ;  and  the  intelli- 
gent reader  finds  additional  instances  constantly 
occurring  to  him  as  he  peruses  their  glowing 
words. 

But  one  of  the  most  remarkable  things  about 
the  gospel  story  is  the  presentation  it  gives  us  of 
Christ  as  the  interpreter  of  prophecy.  He  was 
himself  a  prophet,  but  he  is  shown  also  as  both 
endorser  and  interpreter  of  the  Old  Testament 
prophecies.  Those  who  would  find  in  prophecy 
only  forecast,  by  the  most  general  forms  of  lan- 
guage, of  coming  events,  must  stand  rebuked  be- 
fore Christ's  use  of  prophetic  Scripture.  He  in- 
terprets it  with  a  startling  minuteness,  not  once  or 
twice  but  continuously.  Take  the  one  subject  of 
his  resurrection.  He  refers  to  it  frequently  as  a 
thing  of  prophecy.  ''Thus  it  is  written"  is  his 
formula.  He  speaks  of  the  slowness  of  heart  in 
his  disciples  to  believe  *'  all  that  the  prophets  have 
written  "  on  the  theme  of  his  resurrection.  All 
this  was  ''done  according  to  the  Scriptures,"  i.  e., 
the  Old  Testarnent.  He  was,  he  said,  "  the  stone 
which  the  builders  rejected,"  as  foretold  by  the 
psalmist.    These  things  are  "  written  by  the  proph- 

223 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

ets  concerning  the  Son."  The  Holy  Ghost,  by 
the  prophets,  had  "  testified  beforehand  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ  and  the  glory  that  should  follow." 
Jesus  said  of  himself,  "  the  third  day  he  shall  rise 
again"  ;  ''Thus  it  is  written  and  thus  it  behoved 
Christ  to  suffer  and  to  rise  from  the  dead  the 
third  day."  The  "thus  it  is  written"  is  the  proph- 
ecy in  Hosea  6:2:  "After  two  day  will  he  revive 
us  ;  in  the  third  day  he  will  raise  us  up."  There 
was  a  near  fulfillment.  But  after  that  near  fulfill- 
ment, our  Lord  quotes  the  words  as  a  prophecy  of 
his  resurrection.  Here  it  is  not  "general  tone" 
nor  "  mere  sound  of  similar  words,"  but  an  actual 
prophecy  concerning  a  circumstance  that  only  the 
Holy  Spirit  could  have  foretold.  Jesus  uses  the 
prophecy  about  "  three  days  "  so  often  that  his 
enemies  used  it  to  point  a  sneer,  when  he  was 
dead.  They  say,  "  We  remember  that  while  that 
deceiver  was  yet  alive  he  said.  After  three  days,  I 
will  rise  again." 

As  with  Christ's  interpretation  of  prophecy,  so 
it  is  with  those  given  us  by  the  apostles.  In 
pointing  out  the  fulfillment  of  minute  prophecies 
they  are  especially  earnest ;  and  so  they  are  our 
warrant  in  expecting  direct  and  minute  fulfillment 
of  those  that  await  accomplishment.  Only  let 
it  be  noted  that  these  prophecies,  the  fulfillment 
of  which  was  claimed  by  our  Lord  and  his  apos- 
tles, were  not  the  vague  statements  of  shrewd 
men  venturing  upon  the  possible  contingencies  in 
human  affairs.  The  words  are  too  definite,  the 
predictions  too  careful,  the  details  too  many  and 
unlikely,  the  circumstantial  descriptions  too  exact 

224 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIOxNS 


for  anything  like  that.  God  must  have  inspired 
these  men  to  the  extent  of  giving  them  a  knowl- 
edge that  no  shrewdness  or  foresight  could  pos- 
sibly furnish.  Sometimes  they  did  not  themselves 
know  all  the  meanings  in  their  own  predictions. 
They  searched  to  find  out  what  the  inspiring  Spirit 
really  meant  when  it  testified  to  a  suffering  Christ 
and  the  glory  that  should  follow.  In  such  cases 
God  must  have  directed  the  word  that  carried  in  it 
reaches  of  divine  thought  greater  than  the  writers 
knew.  Other  forms  and  degrees  of  care  and 
superintendence  might  elsewhere  sufifice ;  but  in 
the  case  of  minute,  far-reaching,  and  altogether 
unlikely  prediction,  a  special  inspiration  must  have 
been  vouchsafed.  And  students  of  the  facts 
which  show  the  precise  fulfillment  of  the  most 
literal  words  of  the  prophetic  books  stand  some- 
times both  delighted  and  amazed.  They  compare 
what  God  has  wrought  with  what  God  has  said. 
And  they  see  in  accomplished  prophecy  a  nine- 
teenth-century proof  of  the  accuracy,  credibility, 
and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures. 

These  things  being  so,  it  cannot  be  said  that 
those  predictions  not  yet  fulfilled  are  at  all  doubt- 
ful. The  date  is  not  yet  ripe  for  some  of  them. 
''The  fullness  of  time  "  is  not  yet  come.  God  is 
not  done  with  the  world.  The  keystone  is  not 
yet  set  in  the  arch. 

Then  too,  the  methods  of  prophecy  are  not  those 
of  history.  Prophecy  does  not  see  chronological 
but  moral  order  as  the  prominent  thing.  It  is  not 
history  written  beforehand.  Events  are  connected 
less  in  time  and  more  in  character.  Things  that 
p  225 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

are  alike  are  massed.  In  the  same  passage  there 
is  reference  to  events  centuries  apart.  A  babe 
born  in  the  prophet's  day  is  connected,  in  pro- 
phetic vision  and  word,  with  a  babe  to  be  born 
hundreds  of  years  afterward  at  Bethlehem.  A 
prediction  of  the  first  coming  carries,  in  a  sub- 
ordinate clause,  a  prediction  of  the  second  coming. 
A  circumstance  named  in  connection  with  a  proph- 
ecy of  the  first  advent  is  not  fulfilled  in  the  life 
of  Jesus.  It  awaits  his  second  advent.  The  two 
comings,  utterly  unlike  in  aim,  as  far  apart  as  pos- 
sible in  their  circumstances,  are  yet  alike  in  this 
one  thing,  they  are  the  comings  of  the  Christ. 
The  prophetic  eye  sees  both  and  predicts  both  in 
a  single  sentence.  This  would  be  a  false  method 
in  history,  but  it  is  a  true  method  in  prophecy. 
And  the  objection  that  has  been  raised  on  this  ac- 
count has  simply  shown  a  lack  of  knowledge  of 
the  real  prophetic  method.  Let  one  get  the  point 
of  view  of  the  prophets,  and  the  objections  be- 
come confirmations. 

But  there  are  those  who  look  less  at  single 
prophecies  and  more  at  the  prophetic  trend  of  the 
whole  Old  Testament.  Both  views  are  correct ; 
nor  does  the  specific  invalidate  the  broader  pro- 
phetic scope.  It  is  equally  unjust  to  slight  either 
form  of  prophecy.  There  has  been  not  a  little 
unwise  discussion  whether  the  familiar  phrase  "  in 
order  that  "  means  the  exact  fulfillment  of  specific 
words,  or  is  only  an  illustration  of  an  underlying 
principle  announced  originally  by  a  prophet,  but 
pointed  out  by  an  evangelist.  The  two  may  well 
be  blended.     The  grammatical   construction    un- 

226 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

doubtedly  favors  the  former  view.  It  looks,  on 
the  face  of  the  Gospels,  as  if  their  writers  so  re- 
garded it.  They  attach  sometimes  great  force  to 
a  single  word  in  a  long  prophecy.  And  yet  they 
occasionally  quote  the  principle  rather  than  the 
specific  word.  Oftener  however  the  two  views  are 
blended.  It  makes  the  prophecy  less  mechanical 
and  the  fulfillment  less  artificial,  if  we  recognize 
the  underlying  principle.  God  is  always  prophe- 
sying in  the  Old  Testament.  The  whole  history 
of  the  mediating  people  is  inspired.  There  are 
everywhere  prophetic  events,  some  very  striking, 
some  mainly  of  worth  as  showing  the  trend.  There 
were  constantly  prophetic  men  ;  each  exemplifying 
some  one  great  virtue  preparatory  to  the  final  ad- 
vent of  the  Lord.  So  in  the  summer  time  you 
shall  find  an  artist  drawing  here  a  tree,  sketching 
there  a  mountain,  giving  now  the  course  of  some 
meadow  brook,  and  then  the  outline  of  some  lovely 
lake.  He  calls  them  "studies."  He  means  by 
and  by  to  assemble  them  all  in  the  famous  picture 
to  be  painted  in  the  winter  studio.  So  it  is  that 
in  the  Bible  God  gives  us  these  prophetic  events, 
prophetic  men,  prophetic  rites,  prophetic  develop- 
ments. They  are  studies  toward  the  grand  por- 
traiture. The  primal  sin  introduces  the  primal 
promise  which  gives  token  of  the  Calvary  sorrow 
and  the  resulting  salvation.  The  strange  appear- 
ance of  the  priestly  Melchizedek,  without  enrolled 
father  or  mother,  who  is  not  born  and  does  not 
die  on  the  pages  of  the  record,  is  prophetic  of  the 
Christ  who  is  the  perpetual  High  Priest.  So  it  is 
everywhere  and  with  everything.     Not  an  event  is 

227 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

there  that  is  not  morally  predictive.  The  exodus 
and  the  entrance,  the  captain  appearing  to  Joshua, 
the  strange  episodes  of  the  judges,  the  prosperous 
kingdom  under  Saul,  David,  and  Solomon,  the 
stormy  days  of  political  struggle  with  its  humilia- 
tions and  its  salvations,  the  great  captivity  and  the 
wonderful  return — all  of  it  is  in  the  unmistakable 
trend,  all  of  it  is  inspired  history  craving  inspired 
record. 

But  the  golden  thread  on  which  all  the  events 
are  strung  is  that  of  Messianic  prophecy.  No 
other  nation  had  such  an  inspiring  thought  as 
thrilled  the  Hebrews.  One  wonders  that  poetry, 
outside  the  Hebrew  bards,  did  not  dream  of  such 
a  One.  The  king  of  a  spiritual  kingdom,  the  Christ 
anointed  of  God,  the  suffering  Servant  who  is  the 
appointed  Saviour — all  these  are  the  various  forms 
of  the  great  idea  that  runs  through  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. It  is  the  union  of  a  thousand  separate 
threads  woven  into  one  firm  fabric.  All  saviours 
from  Israel's  foes  point  to  "the  Saviour"  ;  all  sal- 
vation the  ''great  Salvation";  all  deliverers  fore- 
tell ''the  Deliverer."  A  great  thought  is  palpitat- 
ing through  the  record  and  giving  it  its  due  form 
and  its  peculiar  expression.  The  trend  never 
turns  aside.  Steadily  it  grows  in  strength.  It 
unifies  all  diversities.  It  is  the  great  character- 
istic. It  separates  this  literature  to  an  immeas- 
urable distance  from  all  other  national  writings. 
All  prophecies  of  every  sort  verge  toward  this 
Messianic  fact.  Not  one  of  them  is  a  deviation 
from  this  ultimate  goal.  The  sunshine  is  stronger 
and  stronger  on  the  way  in  which  all  things  run, 

228 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

and  the  prize  at  the  end  grows  brighter  as  the  cen- 
turies advance.  Things  are  directed  and  the  pro- 
cession moves  more  swiftly ;  but  the  line  of 
direction  never  alters.  The  bent  knows  no  bend- 
ing. There  are  eras  of  special  revelation.  The 
light  gets  stronger,  now  by  steady  increase  and 
anon  by  sudden  flashes.  Sometimes  the  "  word  of 
the  Lord  was  rare  in  those  days"  ;  sometimes  there 
was  ''open  vision."  Always  there  was  guidance. 
As  in  nature,  so  in  revelation,  there  is  variation, 
but  God  never  loses  his  type.  The  divine  thought 
is  evermore  reappearing.      Dr.  Harper  has  said  : 

That  Israelitish  history  is  unique  ;  that  a  nation  was 
especially  chosen  by  God  from  all  the  nations  of  the  earth 
to  do  a  work  that  should  bless  all  the  families  of  the  earth  ; 
that  Israel  was  especially  guided  in  every  step  of  national 
history;  that  disaster  was  the  direct  messenger  of  God  ;  that 
prosperity  was  in  the  strictest  sense  the  result  of  obedience 
to  the  divine  command  ;  that  Jehovah,  not  a  national  deity, 
but  the  creator  of  all  the  earth,  was  his  guide,  his  rock,  his 
redeemer  ;  that  Israel' s  legislation  was  direct  from  heaven  ; 
that  Israel's  prophets  spoke  the  exact  word  of  God — all  this 
the  poets  and  prophets  and  sages  declare  repeatedly  and 
emphatically.  The  events  of  Hebrew  history  stand  alone. 
God  acted  in  them  as  he  acted  in  no  others.  Israelitish 
history  is  in  a  peculiar  sense  divine.  —  ''Biblical  World,'' 
Feb.,  i8g3. 

History  shows  continually  recurring  divine  laws. 
These  are  the  constant  principles  out  of  which 
come  the  facts.  So  that  by  massing  the  facts  we 
reason  backward  to  the  laws,  and  reason  forward 
to  the  events.  The  Bible  thus  becomes  one  open 
book  of  eternal  principles.  It  takes  up  facts  wide 
centuries  apart  and  puts  them  side  by  side.     In 

229 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  Paul  names  the  two 
sons  of  Abraham  as  answering  to  Sinai  and  to  Jeru- 
salem. He  says  *'  Hagar  is  Sinai."  ''  He  who 
was  of  the  bond-woman  was  born  after  the  flesh  ; 
but  he  who  was  born  after  the  free  woman  was 
born  after  the  Spirit.  Which  things  are  an  alle- 
gory." The  attempt  to  put  mystical  meaning  on 
such  words  has  misled  some  good  expositors.  Once 
let  the  idea  be  clearly  perceived  that  the  great 
typical  thoughts  of  "law  and  gospel,"  "nature 
and  grace,"  are  always  present  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment history,  and  the  "allegory"  or  instance,  as 
Paul  calls  it,  is  simply  the  recurrence  in  other 
forms  of  the  everywhere  present  thought  that  girds 
all  parts  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  into  one  compacted 
dominating  aim  and  impulse  and  inspiration. 

That  the  story  of  the  Christian  facts,  even  when 
reported  by  eye-witnesses,  should   be  affected  by 

the  personal   equation   of    the 

Section  VI.         writer,  is  what  we  might  expect. 

^^T-View^        But  what   about  the  doctrinal 

teaching,    the    inner    spiritual 

meaning  of  the  facts  ?     Do  the  doctrinal  writers 

of  the  New  Testament  draw  conclusions  not  only 

diverse  but  opposed  to  each  other  ?     If  the  logical 

deductions   are    not    harmonious,   is  there    not   a 

blemish  on  the  inspiration  and  would  not  this  be 

an  actual  proof  of  non-inspiration  ? 

The  old  conflict,  so  often  alleged  between  Paul 
and  James,  is  now  relegated  to  the  past.  It  is 
seen  that  Paul's  doctrine  of  the  justification  of  a 
sinner  by  faith  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  justifi- 

230 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 


cation  of  a  man's  belief  that  he  is  a  Christian  as 
evidenced  by  his  works.  But  so  fierce  was  the 
contest  over  the  alleged  discrepancy  that  so  good  a 
man  as  Luther  called  James'  epistle  "an  epistle  of 
straw,"  and  denied  it  to  be  an  inspired  writing. 
It  was,  indeed,  only  the  passing  vehemence  of  an 
earnest  soul  that  had  discerned  one  truth,  and  for 
the  moment  mistook  his  island  for  the  whole  broad 
continent.  But  the  vigor  of  the  language  shows 
what  was  thought  of  the  alleged  discrepancy  of 
view  between  James  and  Paul. 

There  has  been  developed  of  late  a  tendency  to 
insist  upon  the  difference  between  Paul  and  John. 
It  would  seem  that  some  who  dislike  the  doctrine 
would  pit  the  apostle  of  justice  against  the  apostle 
of  love.  There  is  a  disposition  to  speak  of  Paul 
as  forensically  narrow  and  John  as  the  disciple 
more  nearly  presenting  the  broad  heart  of  his  Lord. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  difference  in  the 
personality  of  the  two  men,  and  that  this  element 
comes  out  constantly  in  their  epistles.  Paul  is 
a  logician.  He  reasons.  John  never  reasons,  save 
with  his  heart.  You  can  trace  Paul's  thought 
and  find  out  why  he  says  the  next  thing.  John's 
connection  of  thought  is  simply  a  connection 
of  feeling.  Paul  is  doctrinal ;  John  experimental. 
Paul  is  looking  toward  an  end ;  John  is  the  ideal- 
ist who  cares  not  for  any  related  truth,  nor 
where  his  idealism  may  lead  him.  Paul  asks 
why  a  thing  is  done  and  how  it  is  done  ;  John 
seizes  on  the  thing  as  done  already.  The  idea  of 
high  solemn  justice  met  and  blended  with  com- 
passion, and  both  manifested  in  Christ,  dominates 

231 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

Paul's  thought,  while  the  idea  of  God  as  light  and 
love  is  regnant  in  the  heart  of  John.  Salvation  is 
secured,  in  Paul's  conception,  through  believing 
on  Christ  and  so  obtaining  remission  of  sins  and 
the  witnessing  Spirit.  In  John's  idea,  salvation 
comes  from  walking  in  the  light  and  in  fellowship 
with  God,  whose  love  is  shown  in  giving  Christ  to 
be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins.  Men  will  always 
differ  as  to  which  is  the  root  idea.  Some  will  see 
the  substantial  unity  of  the  two  views. ^ 

One  asserts  the  atonement ;  the  other  assumes 
it.  One  has  a  certain  systematic  completeness  ; 
the  other  revels  in  the  joyousness  of  truth,  care- 
less of  all  formal  statement.  We  may  not  say 
that  Paul  was  all  brain  and  John  all  heart.  For 
Paul's  logic  was  often  on  fire  with  love,  and  John's 
love  often  sees  clearly  that  we  must  be  practical  in 
our  love  to  man  as  well  as  fervent  in  our  love  to 
God.  The  redeeming  Christ,  seen  by  the  one  on 
his  cross,  is  seen  by  the  other  as  the  "  Lamb  of 
God"  whose  death  is  a  "propitiation  for  the  sins 
of  the  world."  There  is  not  a  doctrine  of  Paul 
that  has  not  an  ample  and  direct  recognition  as  a 
principle  of  life  in  John.  And  while  the  absolute 
artlessness  of  the  latter  contrasts  strangely  with 

^  This  whole  theme  is  thoroughly  discussed  in  the  able  work  of 
Dr.  George  B.  Stevens,  entitled  "The  Johannine  Theology." 
The  scope  is  so  broad  and  the  treatment  so  exhaustive  that  the 
book  must  remain  a  standard  volume  on  this  matter.  The  "Bib- 
lical World,"  March,  1894,  contains  an  article  by  Dr.  Stevens, 
giving  an  epitome  of  the  views  presented  in  the  book  above 
named,  in  which  he  shows  that  on  the  subjects  of  "The  Idea  of 
God,"  "The  Person  of  Christ,"  "The  Work  of  Christ,"  "The 
Doctrine  of  Sin,"  and  the  "Method  of  Salvation,"  there  is  no 
discrepancy  between  the  two  apostles. 

232 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 


the  systematic  form  of  Pauline  statement,  the 
trend  is  the  same.  The  truth  of  Hfe  through 
Christ  alone,  of  salvation  by  divine  grace  through 
a  faith  that  issues  in  affectionate  obedience,  throbs 
through  them  both.  The  direction  in  which  both 
move  is  the  same  and  they  are  animated  at  every 
step  by  the  same  blessed  Holy  Spirit  of  God. 
The  discrepancy  is  only  of  the  surface.  The  in- 
spiring trend  is  one.  The  forensic  conception  of 
salvation  in  Paul's  epistles,  the  sacrificial  concep- 
tion in  John,  and  the  practical  conception  of  the 
result  of  all  the  other  conceptions  as  seen  in 
James,  are  just  so  many  different  developments  of 
the  same  great  truth  founded  on  the  same  great 
facts.  The  unity  in  the  diversity  shows  the  one 
ever-present  trend  of  divine  inspiration  working 
through  human  facts,  human  hearts,  and  human 
words. 


A  few  of  these  were  alleged  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago.     They  arose  from  our  imperfect  knowl- 
edge of  Egyptian  and  Babylo- 
nian   history,   chronolo2:y,   and    ^    Section  VII.  ^ 
inscriptions'   They  are  seldom    ^°P°fe£e1es 
mentioned  to-day.      But  there 
is  among  those  familiar  with  the  mythology  of  the 
Greek   and    Roman  writers  a   kind  of    suspicion. 
The  older  stories  of  the  classic  authors   read   in 
the  college  courses    have  made  many  persons  not 
precisely  distrustful,  but  at   least  willing  to   hear 
what   can  be   said   about  the  difference  between 
Hebrew  story  and    the    Greek    or   Roman  myth. 
Happily  the  better  geographical  and  topographical 

233 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

researches  of  our  time  have  done  not  a  little  to 
reassure  any  hesitating  faith.  For  not  only  is 
there  a  vast  multitude  of  agreeing  and  confirma- 
tory testimony,  as  gathered  by  such  men  as  Raw- 
linson  ^  and  others,  showing  the  whole  tone  and 
coloring  of  the  scriptural  events  to  be  in  agreement 
with  all  we  know  of  the  alleged  times  and  places 
where  these  events  took  place,  but  the  whole 
mythological  idea  of  the  classic  writers  of  the  old 
Greek  and  Roman  world  is  shown  to  sit  so  lightly 
on  the  hills  and  mountains,  rivers  and  plains  of  the 
classic  lands,  that  the  myth  can  be  disengaged  and 
every  scrap  of  history  remain,  while  the  Scripture 
events  are  part  and  parcel  of  Palestinian  history 
and  topography. 

The  landscapes  of  Greece  would  not  be  altered 
in  the  least  by  leaving  out  every  line  of  Greek 
mythology.  The  supernatural  could  be  blown  off 
as  a  cloud  from  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  every 
fact  of  history  would  be  the  sam.e.  Those  legends 
were  ncA^er  attached  save  in  the  loosest  and  slen- 
derest way  to  any  locality.  The  Grecian  myth 
had  never  an  hour's  serious  belief  even  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  used  it  in  poetic  license  or  in 
popular  declamation.  It  was  like  our  St.  Nicholas 
and  Santa  Glaus.  It  did  well  enough  as  the  pad- 
ding for  polite  literature  among  an  imaginative 
people.  They  liked  the  beauty  of  the  conception. 
It  helped  artist  and  singer  and  orator.  It  was 
never  real  to  the  people.  It  was  a  disembodied 
ghost.     It  had  no  time  or  place ;  no  form,  save  in 

^  "Egypt  and  Babylon,"  by  George  Rawlinson. 
234 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

fancy ;  no  power,  save  as  a  pleasant  fiction  used  to 
charm  a  weary  hour.  It  never  dreamed  of  afford- 
ing proof  from  eye-witnesses.  All  was  wrapped 
in  mist.  All  was  seen  in  haze.  All  was  unreal, 
shadowy,  evanescent.  There  was  no  locality,  no 
basis  of  topography.  No  one  said  that  these 
things  must  needs  have  been,  Greece  being  what 
she  was  in  her  geographical  position  and  her  au- 
thentic history.  You  can  lift  off  the  legend,  and 
the  land  is  there.  You  can  dissipate  the  mist,  and 
that  fair  and  famous  old  Athens  is  just  the  same. 

But  these  gospel  facts  have  historic  and  topo- 
graphical anchorage.  They  occurred  in  the  most 
critical  age  the  world  ever  saw.  Neither  has 
geometry  nor  the  science  of  evidence  advanced  a 
hair's  breadth  since  that  time.  These  facts  oc- 
curred not  in  any  obscure  land,  but  in  a  country 
that  fronted  all  three  of  the  continents  of  the 
known  world  of  that  time,  the  most  prominent 
and  coveted  portion  of  the  earth.  They  occurred 
at  Capernaum  in  the  center  of  a  dense  population, 
and  at  Jerusalem,  the  chief  literary  city ;  also  in 
the  hill-country  of  Bethlehem  and  the  upland 
towns  of  Galilee,  all  in  the  space  of  some  forty 
miles,  where  men  of  extensive  learning  abounded 
and  the  Greek  language  and  the  Roman  law  pre- 
vailed. The  supernatural  of  Palestine,  exactly 
unlike  that  of  Greece,  is  a  veritable  part  of  the 
history  of  the  country  itself.  The  facts  are  bound 
up  with  the  land.  The  history  and  topography 
are  blended  in  one  common  unity. 

Says  Professor  Sayce,  in  the  "  Expository  Times," 
December,  1891  : 

235 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 


There  are  numerous  cases  in  which  the  discoveries  of  the 
last  few  years  have  re-established  the  credit  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  dissipated  the  ingenious  objections  raised 
against  them.  Assyriology,  Egyptology,  prehistoic  archaeol- 
ogy, even  explorations  in  southern  Arabia  and  Asia  Minor, 
have  alike  been  contributing  to  this  result.  .  .  The  second 
half  of  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  that  which 
recounts  the  meeting  between  Abram  and  Melchizedek, 
has  also  received  a  remarkable  confirmation  from  the 
clay  records  of  the  past.  It  is  from  the  tablets  of  Tel  el- 
Amarna  that  the  light  in  this  instance  has  been  derived. 
The  confirmation  thus  unexpectedly  afforded  of  the  histori- 
cal trustworthiness  of  the  two  narratives  in  the  fourteenth 
chapter  of  Genesis  opens  up  a  still  larger  question.  It 
shows  that  underneath  the  narratives  of  Genesis  lie  his- 
torical documents  which  come  down  from  the  age  of  the 
events  which  they  record,  and  possess  accordingly  all  the 
value  of  contemporaneous  evidence.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  period  when  the  book  was  compiled,  its  author  or 
authors  made  use  of  written  materials,  and  these  written 
materials  were  as  historically  trustworthy  as  those  on  which 
we  base  our  knowledge  of  the  Persian  wars  with  Greece. 
The  history  of  Canaan  before  the  Israelitish  conquest  was 
not  a  blank  to  be  filled  up  by  the  legends  and  systematizing 
fictions  of  a  later  day.  It  belongs  to  a  period  when  read- 
ing and  writing  were  widely  known  and  practised,  and 
when  contemporaneous  events  were  recorded  in  imperish- 
able clay. 

Rawlinson,  quoting  the  story  of  Abraham's  visit 
to  Egypt  as  recorded  in  Genesis  12  :  10-20,  calls 
attention  to  particular  after  particular  therein 
enumerated,  and  shows  how  each  was  matched  in 
'* secular  history."  Egypt  is  a  monarchy.  Egypt 
has  princes  under  a  monarchy  with  specific  duties ; 
the  names  of  the  monarch,  Pharaoh,  "the  Great 
House,"  and  those  of  officers,  who  are  to  report  the 
coming  of  any  body  of  foreigners  into  the  king- 

236 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 


dom,  being  given.  In  one  division  of  Egypt  for- 
age abounds.  Domesticated  animals  named  in  the 
story  in  Genesis  are  exactly  those  found  at  that 
time  in  Egypt ;  but  the  horse  is  apparently  in  that 
age  unknown.  These  notices  of  the  Scripture 
clearly  show  the  sort  of  civilization  then  existing 
in  that  land.  Rawlinson  also  quotes  Gen.  39  :  2- 
20;  and  then  shows  "that  this  picture  is  in  re- 
markable harmony  with  the  general  tone  of  Egyp- 
tian manners  and  customs."  A  large  number  of 
these  special  instances  of  this  harmony  are  given 
by  him.  It  is  the  same  with  Joseph's  time;  cus- 
toms then  named  having  been  unknown  in  Abra- 
ham's day.  Precisely  the  same  thing  has  been 
shown  by  Rawlinson  in  his  ''Notices  of  Egypt  in 
Exodus  and  Numbers";  also  in  Kings  and  the 
earlier  prophetic  writing.  Each  book  has  its  set- 
ting in  the  customs  of  its  own  time,  in  contempo- 
rary manners  and  in  historic  facts. 

These  books  are  not  historic  novelettes,  for  "the 
spade"  has  shown  the  proofs  of  historicity.  Light 
came  in  as  to  these  contemporary  facts  and  historic 
confirmations,  first,  from  the  annals  of  Sargon,  by 
which  we  have  the  record  of  expeditions  of  Baby- 
lonian kings  who  had  lived  and  reigned  long  before 
the  time  of  Abraham.  Sayce  insists  that  "  for  the 
archaeologist,  the  Pentateuch  is  rooted  in  the  Mo- 
saic age."  Conder,  of  the  Exploration  Fund,  tells 
us  that  "  things  that  could  not  be  said  three  years 
ago  can  be  said  now  about  the  ancient  civilizations 
and  their  remarkable  agreement,  topographically, 
with  the  Bible  story."  We  have  learned  that  the 
old  cultures  of  Egypt,  of  Assyria,  and  even  of  the 

237 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

Palestinian  peoples,  were  vastly  in  advance  of  what 
had  been  believed ;  that  the  old  world  of  Abraham 
and  Jacob  and  Joseph  and  Moses  was  a  world  of 
books  and  libraries ;  that  men  were  capable  of  re- 
cording historic  facts  with  accuracy;  that  kings 
employed  scribes  to  do  this  thing ;  that  there  was 
even  international  correspondence  in  clay  letters 
between  the  people  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates, 
the  Jordan,  and  the  Nile.  It  has  been  claimed 
that  historic  material  as  worthy  of  credence  was 
furnished  three  thousand  years  ago  as  that  given 
us  within  the  last  three  hundred  years  for  what  we 
call  modern  history/ 

If  a  stable  government,  organized  institutions, 
developed  art  and  papyri  preserved  in  ancient 
tombs,  now  as  legible  as  when  first  written  four 
thousand — some  claim  five  thousand — years  ago ;  if 
tablets  of  clay  hardened  into  imperishable  stone 
can  furnish  a  basis  of  historic  facts ;  and  if  the  his- 
toric faculty  existed,  as  shown  by  the  oldest  Egyp- 
tian book — and  all  this  has  been  proved — then  we 
have  the  opportunity  newly  furnished  to  our  age 
for  comparing  sacred  and  secular  history  in  their 
tone  and  spirit,  in  their  recorded  customs  and  their 
whole  mode  of  thought,  feeling,  and  action.  And 
the  correspondences  are  multiplying.  The  few 
minor  discrepancies — one  hardly  knows  how  to 
state  them,  they  are  so  few — vanish  before  the  ac- 

^  "  That  the  art  of  writing,  and  with  it  historical  and  other  htera- 
ture,  came  with  the  earhest  Eg}'ptian  colonists  there  seems  no  rea- 
son to  doubt.  The  oldest  monuments  show  it  in  as  great  perfec- 
tion as  at  any  subsequent  date."  Dawson,  "Egypt  and  Sinai," 
pp.  159,  160. 

238 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

cumulated  light  of  unintentional  agreements  and 
correspondences.  The  book  is  of  God,  as  well  as 
of  man.  It  is  everywhere  dominated  by  a  trend 
that  is  historical  as  well  as  religious.  One  thought 
from  one  Mind  rules  it  from  first  to  last. 

The  alleged  savagery  of  the  Old  Testament  has 
been  repeatedly  urged  as  a  blot  upon  an  inspired 
book.      About  this  sanguinary 

element    some    things    are    to  Alf  ^^*d° S  ^^^^' 
be   said  frankly.      It    is  (i)  ap-  °  ^    ^ 

parent  in  the  record,  and  we  find  it  sometimes  in 
the  sayings  of  good  men.  One  meets  conspicuous 
instances  of  it  in  the  Psalms.  So  too,  (2)  this  vin- 
dictiveness  in  the  story  comes  sometimes  from  the 
fact  that  these  bloody  wars  were  religious  wars 
waged  against  the  Jehovah  religion  for  its  exclusive 
character.  Good  men  had  to  be  slaughtered  or  to 
resist  by  force  of  arms.  Whatever  may  have  been 
said  later  in  New  Testament  times,  no  idea  of  non- 
resistance  was  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  when 
Israel  was  attacked  by  her  foes.  So  too,  (3)  these 
conspicuous  facts  of  vindictiveness  should  have 
been  accurately  recorded  if  they  actually  existed. 
Nor  is  the  Bible  in  its  record  of  these  wars  any 
more  to  blame  than  is  secular  history  for  its  record 
of  other  wars.  And  further,  (4)  the  vindictiveness 
is  often  a  form  of  intense  opposition  to  the  wrong. 
Some  psalms  can  only  be  fitly  read  in  war  times. 
They  have  a  different  tone  in  such  periods  of 
national  indignation  at  unrighteousness.  There 
were  hours  during  our  late  Civil  "War  when  men 
turned  to  these  most  terrible  war  cries,  nor  found 

239 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

them  too  strong  to  voice  their  moral  wrath  at  the 
enemies  of  righteousness.  But  (5)  there  is  a  rea- 
son deeper  than  any  other.  David  is  usually 
reckoned  as  a  chief  offender.  And  there  is  a 
wide — an  immensely  wide  chasm  between  the 
morality  of  the  man  and  the  religion  of  the  man. 
Let  us  own  this  frankly.  We  are  really  amazed  to 
find  this  man  of  tenderest  soul,  who  in  his  most  de- 
votional moods  is  leading  the  songs  of  the  ages,  so 
sadly  wrong  in  conduct  and  so  vindictive  in  spirit. 
Men  who  are  opposed  to  the  book  say,  "  Well,  here 
is  your  'man  after  God's  own  heart,'  and  he  is  re- 
ligious enough  toward  God,  but  he  is  wicked 
enough  toward  men."  These  are  the  facts — a  very 
spiritual  man,  as  shown  in  his  holy  songs,  and  a 
wicked  man  at  times,  as  shown  in  his  conduct. 
We  do  well  to  make  some  abatement  by  showing 
that  his  wickedness  was  succeeded  by  a  ''return  to 
God."  But  we  shall  find  it  hard  to  be  severe 
upon  him  when  we  see  him  moaning  and  sobbing 
out  his  penitence  before  God  in  his  fifty-first  Psalm. 
One  must  be  hard-hearted  and  of  bitter  and  vin- 
dictive judgment  himself,  who  can  see  him  on  his 
knees  in  confession  and  not  consider  this  fact  of 
his  great  penitence. 

But  all  this  extenuation  may  be  admitted  and 
still  there  is  left  a  sad  record  of  vindictive  deeds. 
Now  let  there  be  seen  on  the  pages  of  sacred  story 
the  whole  broad  series  of  facts.  God  did  select 
this  man  when  he  was  plainly  very  imperfect.  He 
did  not  take  him  as  a  man  advanced  in  morality  or 
practical  holiness.  He  was  a  backward  saint,  at 
first,  even  by  a  low  standard.     In  his  best  days  he 

240 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

was  not  a  specially  advanced  man  in  the  human- 
ities. And  yet  he  is  especially  forward  in  religion. 
Plainly  then  he  is  more  than  himself  in  his  songs. 
He  speaks  for  another  and  by  that  other's  help. 
Only  as  we  assume  a  direct,  express,  peculiar  in- 
spiration of  God's  Holy  Spirit,  very  far  in  advance 
of  his  personal  character,  can  we  understand  him 
or  his  work.  He  is  more  than  the  weak  man 
David.  He  has,  indeed,  natural  poetic  gifts.  But 
he  himself  and  his  muse  are  taken  up  of  God.  His 
inspiration  is  not  measured  by  his  religion.  His 
own  backwardness  stands  right  over  against  his 
wonderful  forwardness  in  spiritual  song.  He  is 
inspired  of  God  above  the  measure  of  his  own 
moral,  religious,  and  spiritual  attainments.  He  is 
moved  upon,  in  his  song  by  a  peculiar  influence, 
raising  him,  in  some  respects,  above  himself.  He 
sings  as  it  were  impossible  he  should  sing  other- 
wise than  as  influenced  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  His 
inspiration  is  more  than  himself.  This  is  the  only 
explanation  of  David.  He  is  proof  and  instance 
of  what  God  can  do  in  this  direction  for  men  who 
in  their  character  are  sadly  fallible,  when  he  will 
take  and  use  them.  They  have  what  we  must  call 
a  peculiar  inspiration  directly  from  God.  And  the 
man  when  thus  mov^ed,  comes  into  the  trend.  He 
sings  often  New  Testament  songs  before  their 
time.  He  is  more  than  David  the  man  ;  he  is 
David  the  divinely  inspired  seer,  the  prophet  of 
the  Lord.  It  was  a  case  of  the  fulfillment,  before 
they  were  uttered,  of  Christ's  words,  *'  It  shall  not 
be  ye  that  speak."  In  this  case  inspiration  is  ex- 
planation. 

Q  241 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

Arguing  on  the  theory  that  inspiration  is  simply 
a  form  of  personal  religious  utterance,  and  so  is 

measured  by  each  man's  per- 
Section  IX.         sonal  piety,   some  have  asked 
Continuous  Reve-    ^j^    ^j^^  ^/^^^  „^^  ^ 

lation  ^.   -^  ,  -^  1  , 

tmuous,  and  men  be  as  much 

inspired  now  as  in  former  times.  In  his  "  Yale 
Lectures,"  Mr.  R.  F.  Horton  adopts  this  view,  rep- 
resenting the  preacher  as  receiving  his  message 
directly  from  God,  exactly  as  did  the  ancient 
prophets.  He. claims  '*a  revelation  that  ts  as  well 
as  a  revelation  that  was."  On  this  ground  revela- 
tion, in  the  sense  of  a  continued  Bible  made  up  of 
experiences  and  revelations  for  the  last  nineteen 
hundred  years,  is  to  be  consulted  as  is  our  Bible. 
So  Schleiermacher  is  understood,  in  some  of  his 
utterances,  to  put  no  emphasis  on  biblical  inspira- 
tion as  a  thing  different  from  that  which  comes 
from  the  utterance  of  any  Christian  soul,  in  the 
speaking  of  the  truth  that  may  be  perceived. 

There  can  be  an  instant  "  test  of  fact  "  in  reply- 
ing to  such  a  statement.  Are  the  religious  teach- 
ers of  to-day  comparable  with  the  New  Testament 
writers  in  divine  inspiration  ?  Take  the  foremost 
books  that  have  influenced  men  for  the  last  two 
centuries.  The  most  widely  known  religious  book 
of  the  former  century  was  Bunyan's  ''Pilgrim's 
Progress  "  ;  the  most  widely  read  religious  volumes 
of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  are  "  Spurgeon's 
Sermons."  Try  these  books  by  Mr.  Horton's 
standard.  Have  they  the  same  authorifativeness 
in  tone  ?  Have  they  the  evidence  anywhere  of 
the  same  inspiration  as   that   of    Paul  and  John  ? 

242 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

How  the  authors  of  these  modern  books  would 
have  shrunk  in  holy  horror  from  such  a  claim. 
They  held  the  Bible  to  be  inspired  in  a  sense  they 
never  dared  claim  for  their  own  productions.  They 
did  hold  that  the  Holy  Spirit  illuminated  their 
minds  to  see,  feel,  interpret,  and  present  anew  the 
truth  found  in  the  inspired  word — a  very  different 
thing. 

So  too,  there  is  the  test  of  the  readers  as  well 
as  of  the  writers.  Do  Christians  feel  that  they  are 
presented  with  the  direct  speech  of  God  in  these 
last-named  books,  as  they  do  when  they  open  their 
Bibles  ?  Surely  ''  the  test  of  Christian  conscious- 
ness," to  which  such  men  as  Mr.  Horton  and  Mr. 
F.  W.  Robertson  and  those  who  intimate  a  "uni- 
versal divine  inspiration  among  Christians  "  are 
wont  to  appeal  so  strongly,  is  against  their  view  in 
this  matter. 

No  more  is  the  claim  exemplified  in  those  who 
make  it.  It  is  not  seen  that  they  are  more  spir- 
itual as  men,  nor  more  divinely  persuasive  as 
teachers.  They  are  not  more  conspicuously  "  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost"  than  their  brethren  in  the 
ministry.  They  always,  when  they  come  to  the 
personal  appeal,  fail  to  put  in  this  claim  for  them- 
selves. They  shrink  with  all  due  modesty,  as 
David  and  Isaiah  and  Paul  and  John  did  not.  But 
the  inspired  prophets  never  shrank,  never  hesi- 
tated. They  boldly  laid  claim  to  direct  divine 
inspiration.  That  the  ''  Yale  Lectures "  do  not 
show  the  same  evidence  of  divine  inspiration  as  do 
the  Pastoral  Epistles,  is  no  reflection  upon  the 
Lectures.     They  are  another  kind  of  production, 

243 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A   TREND 

having  many  excellencies  and  much  to  commend 
them ;  but  they  belong  in  another  realm  of  litera- 
ture. They  show  the  logical  unsoundness  of  the 
main  position  they  set  themselves  to  defend. 
Bound  up  together  with  the  Bible  in  the  same 
volume,  by  sheer  force  of  the  bookmaker's  art, 
there  might  be  a  demand  for  one  edition,  but  no 
second  edition  would  be  printed.  The  testing  in 
any  way,  of  the  position,  shows  its  erroneousness. 
Let  exposition  of  the  sacred  word  be  claimed  for 
such  human  productions ;  let  them  be  regarded  as 
contributions  to  a  better  understanding  of  human 
duty.  But  who  does  not  shrink  from  calling  them 
God's  word  ? 

Further ;  not  only  do  our  human  productions  on 
religious  themes  fail  to  come  up  to  the  level  of 
God's  word,  but  they  often  differ  from  it.  In  that 
case,  according  to  the  theory  of  a  continuous  di- 
vine inspiration,  which  of  them  shall  stand  as  the 
true  word  of  God  for  us  ?  Coming  later,  derived 
from  a  purer  piety,  a  larger  knowledge,  a  higher 
tone  of  Christian  morality  than  was  possible  to 
Christians  in  the  apostolic  age,  the  newer  revela- 
tion will  be  the  better  of  the  two.  The  "modern 
Christian  consciousness"  considered  as  a  Bible, 
will  rightly  supersede  the  former  Bible.  In  that 
case  we  ought  to  read  into  it  our  newer,  better 
convictions  of  what  it  should  say,  and  of  what  it 
would  say  had  it  been  written  in  our  own  century. 
Somebody  once  rewrote  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  one 
of  the  most  spiritual  of  books,  in  the  interest  of 
ritualism.  And  the  moral  scorn  of  the  Christian 
world  was  only  equaled  by  the  literary  scorn  of 

244 


DIFFICULTIES    AND    CONFIRMATIONS 

foremost  reviewers.  To  re-write  the  Bible  in  the 
interests  of  the  theory  of  a  *'  continuous  inspiration 
like  in  kind  to  that  of  the  biblical  writers,"  would 
be  a  necessary  but  a  terrible  duty,  from  which 
none  would  shrink  more  heartily  than  some  who 
have  not  duly  considered  the  trend  of  their  mis- 
taken position. 

There  is  no  antecedent  reason  why  the  Old 
Testament  should  not  stop  at  a  given  point,  and 
none  why  the  New  Testament  should  not  have  a 
close.  One  might  not  beforehand  say  where  a 
period  should  be  put  to  either  volume.  But  now 
that  it  has  been  done,  we  can  mark  the  wisdom  that 
began  and  ended  the  Bible.  It  is  with  revelation 
as  it  is  in  nature  with  the  creation  of  man,  the  end 
everywhere  typified  is  reached.  Says  Winchell  : 
''The  column  of  organic  succession  is  complete  in 
man.  The  lower  forms,  gradually  and  regularly 
ascending  from  base  to  summit,  constitute  the 
shaft  of  the  column  ;  but  in  man  we  have  a  sudden 
expansion,  an  ornateness  of  finish,  an  incorporation 
of  new  ideas  which  designate  him  as  the  capital 
and  completion  of  the  grand  column  of  organic 
existence.  No  further  progress  can  be  made  in 
this  direction."  There  is  the  fulfilhng  of  all 
former  predictions  of  nature  in  man,  the  creature ; 
and  similarly  all  prophecies  of  inspiration  are  ful- 
filled in  the  New  Testament.  It  expects  to  be 
superseded  by  no  other  book. 

Careful  study  and  reflection  on  the  scope  of  the 
revelation    God   has   given  us   show  the   rounded 


1  "Sketches  of  Creation,"  p.  377. 
245 


INSPIRATION    CONSIDERED    AS    A    TREND 

completion  of  the  work  undertaken.  We  praise 
God  for  what  he  has  given.  We  might  ask,  in  our 
merely  curious  moods,  for  more.  Sometimes  we 
long,  in  the  progress  of  the  undertaking,  for  a  few 
words  here  and  there  to  help  us  understand  the 
Bible  more  completely.  But  our  more  sober 
thought  is  as  glad  over  the  silences  as  it  is  over 
the  utterances  of  the  Scriptures.  The  trend  finds 
consummation.  It  brought  us  on  to  Christ ;  then 
on  to  his  church  as  founded  and  directed  by  apos- 
tolic teaching.  The  apostles  could  have  no  suc- 
cessors. Verbal  testimony  as  to  a  risen  Christ  by 
men  appointed  of  God  who  saw  him  after  his 
resurrection,  must  end  with  their  death.  But  this 
ripe,  rounded  New  Testament,  they  have  left  be- 
hind for  us,  claiming  for  it  the  fulfillment  of  their 
Master's  promise,  "  He,"  i.  e.,  the  Holy  Spirit, 
''shall  lead  you  into  all  truth."  These  men  fol- 
lowed out  in  their  verbal  and  in  their  written  story 
this  promised  leading,  this  divine  trend  ;  and  it  is 
ours  to  mark  this  trend  everywhere  visible  in  their 
thought  and  deed  and  word. 


246 


INDEX 


Adam,  created   in   righteousness 

and  holiness,  102. 
Abraham :  and  coming  Christ,  88 ; 

attempted  offering  of  Isaac,  108. 
Age-spirit,  danger  from,  59. 
Alleged  facts,  either  Jrue  or  im- 
moral, 23. 
Alleged  errancy,  179. 
Antagonisms  in  argument  to  be 

avoided,  35. 
Anthropomorphism,  166,  206. 
Apostolic  representations,  202. 
Approximations  in  all  theories,  35. 
Apprehend,  to,  not  to  comprehend, 

40. 
Apostles  not  mentally  or  morally 

superior,  203. 
Assumptions :  necessary  in  mathe- 
matics, 19 ;  of  outside  world,  49  ; 

of  inspiration  of  Bible  by  good 

men,  1.36. 
Argument   for   Divine   existence 

and  Divine  inspiration  similar. 

Introduction. 
Assyrian  ante-Mosaic  belief,  101. 
Athenian  fancies,  235. 
Authorship:  not  always  avowed, 

154 ;  often  assumed  as  known, 

155. 
Authentic  documents  needed,  28. 
Autobiography  of  Moses,  83. 
Axioms :  in  mathematics,  25 ;  in 

logic,  46  ;  in  morals,  47. 

Balfour,  quotation  from,  138. 
Basis:  in  New  Testament,  45;  in 


Old  Testament,  46  ;  in  intuitions, 
47. 

Belief :  in  self,  48 ;  in  substance 
other  than  our  bodies,  48 ;  in 
other  minds,  49 ;  in  the  true  and 
the  false,  50 ;  postures  experi- 
ential, 118. 

Bengel,  quotation  from,  laS. 

Bently,  quotation  from,  217. 

Bible :  hold  of  on  middle  classes, 
14,  28 ;  a  growth,  72 ;  bound  to 
account  for,  16;  awakes  moral 
convictions,  70 ;  universal  utter- 
ances of,  75  ;  wide  plan  of,  139 ; 
completion  of,  245 ;  no  one  cla.ss 
addressed  in,  14 ;  of  great  value, 
71 ;  a  human  book,  175. 

Biography  as  a  method  of  history, 
82. 

Bruce,  quotation  from,  44,  60. 

Caiaphas,  prophecy  of,  107. 

Canonical  books,  143. 

Capacity  for  being  inspired,  117. 

Christ:  endorsement  of  Old  Testa- 
ment by,  163  ;  his  interpretation 
of  prophecies,  223 ;  his  interpre- 
tation of  the  facts  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  the  New  Dispen- 
sation, 110. 

Christian  censciousness :  argu- 
ment from,  123,  1.35 ;  agreement 
of,  with  written  word,  131. 

Christianity  :  exists,  45 ;  connected 
with  a  book,  47. 

Chronological  ditficulties :  recog 
247 


248 


INDEX 


nized,  208 ;  exist  in  other  ancient 
books,  209. 

Coleridge's  view  of  Old  Testament, 
96. 

Contemporary  Review,  quotation 
from,  57. 

Conant,  quotation  from,  106. 

Contents  of  ^Christian  conscious- 
ness, 115. 

Continuous  inspiration,  133,  242. 

Co-partnership  of  Bible  and  hu- 
man intuitions,  175. 

Co-relation  of  fact  and  record,  174. 

Cross  references  of  biblical  writers, 
159. 

Davis,  quotation  from,  164. 
David's  piety  not  the  measure  of 

his  inspiration,  241. 
Daniel's  prophetic  mood,  196. 
Danger  of   technical  studies,  49, 

129. 
Dawson,  quotation  from,  238. 
Deborah's  song,  170. 
Deliverances  and   the  Deliverer, 

171. 
Development  of  conception,  106 
Devotional  use  of  Bible,  134. 
Difficulties  in  discarding  the 

Bible,  17. 
Difficulties  may  be  confirmations, 

206. 
Divine    guidance    in    common 

events,  192. 
Dormant  intuitions,  60. 
Dynamic  theory,  32. 

Elements  of  truth  in  each  theory, 

33. 
Egyptian  beliefs,  101. 
Enoch's  prophecies,  103. 
Erasmus,  quotation  from,  136. 
Events :  cumulative,  76 ;  inspired 

record  of,  33. 
Evidence,    human   certainty  by, 

180. 


Existence,  the  Divine.  Introduc- 
tion. 

Experimental  religion :  as  to  the 
Bible,  126  ;  its  methods  of  proof, 
123  ;  its  limitations,  124  ;  its  cer- 
tainties, 126 ;  its  corrections,  133 ; 
its  echo  of  biblical  fact  and  doc- 
trine, 135. 

Eye,  the  vital,  34. 

Ezekiel's  prophecies,  169. 

Fairbairn,    quotation    from,    117, 

132. 
Farrar,  quotation  from,  87. 
Feeling,  a  fact  to  be  recognized, 

125. 
Flowers   concentrated    sunshine, 

114. 
Final  authority  in  religion,  141. 
Force,  vital,  15. 
Future  life:   in  historical  books, 

103 ;     in    Pentateuch,    104 ;     in 

prophets,  105. 

Garbett,  quotation  from,  199. 

Geographical  exactness  and  inex- 
actness, 78. 

Genius :  human,  in  Bible,  32 ;  in 
plan  of  books,  96. 

God :  argument  for  existence  of. 
Introduction.  Argument  for, 
of  trend,  39 ;  necessitarian  view 
of,  37 ;  teleological  view  of,  38 ; 
as  a  logical  being,  62 ;  as  a  moral 
being,  63  ;  arguments  for,  same 
as  for  inspiration,  40. 

Hackett,  quotation  from,  215. 
Hamilton,  quotation  from,  62. 
Harper,  quotation  from,  88, 114,  229. 
Hebrew  race:    foremost  morally, 

21 ;  historic  existence  of,  45. 
Hegelianism,  23. 
Historians:  best  are  biographei-s, 

82:    necessarily     prophetic, 


INDEX 


249 


though  humanly  so,  95 ;  Mosaic 

method  revived  by,  97. 
Hitchcock,  quotation  from,  91. 
Holy  Spirit :   interpreter,  109 ;  in- 

spirer,  150. 
Homeric  methods  of  description, 

81. 
Homiletic  use  of  Bible,  135. 
Horton,  quotation  from,  131. 
Hopkins,  quotation  from,  217. 

Importance  of  inquiry,  13,  20. 

Increasing  knowledge,  1«5. 

Induction  as  a  method  :  defined, 
42;  limitations  of,  43  ;  deduction 
not  wholly  separated  from,  42 ; 
only  probable  conclusions 
reached  by,  44. 

Influence  of  Bible,  14. 

Inerrancy,  182. 

Inspiration:  burden  of  proof  on 
opixjnents,  described  rather 
than  defined,  29 ;  of  facts,  190 ; 
thrones  of,  32  ;  human,  34  ;  en- 
dorsement of,  by  other  inspired 
men,  157 ;  various  ways  of  con- 
sidering. Introduction;  verbal, 
32. 

Interpretation  (full)  of  Old  Testa- 
ment only  in  New,  90. 

Intuition :  corroborated  by  reason, 
56 ;  trustworthy,  .58. 

Investigators  should  be  exi)eri- 
mental  Christians,  135. 

Judaism :    exists,    45 ;    connected 

with  a  book,  46. 
Judean  topography,  236. 
Judgment  day:  intuitive  belief  in, 

54 ;  also  reasonable,  55. 

Kilpatrick,  quotation  from,  210. 

Kidd,  quotation  from  in  "  Social 
Evolution,"  58. 

Knowledge,  human,  not  unreli- 
able, 44. 


Libraries,  ancient,  on  stone  and 

papyrus,  238. 
Life,  to  be  described  not  defined, 

17. 
Life  and  immortality  brought  to 

light,  160. 
Literalncss  of  biblical  events,  100. 
Literary  imperfection  not  moral 

error,  74. 
Literature  (human)  the  expected 

form  of  revelation,  151. 
Livingstone,  quotation  from,  57. 
Luther's  view  of  James'  Epistle, 

231. 

Maury,  quotation  from,  217, 

Material,  literary,  in  Palestine,  162. 

Maurice,  quotation  from,  23. 

Max  Mliller,  quotation  from,  50. 

Measure  of  piety  not  that  of  in- 
spiration, 186,  203. 

Men  free  though  inspired,  151. 

Methods :  those  to  be  used,  29 ; 
historical,  79 ;  optical,  80. 

Mill :  quotation  from,  on  con- 
sciousness, 47 ;  on  induction, 
115. 

Miracle  :  not  a  buttress,  but  truth 
incarnate,  194  ;  demand  for,  75  ; 

Moral  intuitions,  48-54. 

Morrison,  quotation  from,  58. 

Moses  :  method  of  in  writing,  81 ; 
code  of,  97 ;  in  wilderness,  34. 

Monotheistic  idea  always  pre- 
served, 169. 

Multiplication  table,  19. 

Mutual  consistency  of  intuitions, 
62. 

Myer  on  Egyptian  Archaeology, 
52. 

Names  of  scriptural  writings,  203. 
Natural  intuitions,  42, 
Noah's  work,  103. 
Norms:   in    ten   commandment*!, 
119 ;  in  regeneration  as  a  condi- 


250 


INDEX 


tion  of   admission  to  kingdom, 
121. 

Old  nations  monotheistic,  50. 
Old     Testament    interpreted    by 

ISiew,  93. 
Oral  preaching  by  apostles,  142, 

203. 
Owen,  George,  quotation  from,  57. 

Paul :  Epistles  of,  200 ;  his  excep- 
tions, 201. 

Pentateuchal  history,  96. 

Perplexities,  greater  without  in- 
spiration, 24. 

Plain  men  best  witnesses,  18. 

Poetic  quotations  in  Psalms,  171. 

Prayer  to  know  the  truth,  16. 

Premonitions  of  New  Testament 
in  Old,  101. 

Preservation  of  Bible,  186. 

Proctor's  description  of  optical 
phenomena,  91. 

Post-exilic  theory  of  Pentateuch, 
163. 

Prophecies :  of  Noph,  220 ;  of  Mem- 
phis, 221 ;  of  Babylon,  222 ;  of 
Tyre  and  Jerusalem,  223. 

Prophecy  not  history,  225. 

Prophets  did  not  know  all  the 
meanings  of  their  words,  224. 

Progress  in  doctrine,  168. 

Promises  carry  with  them  facts, 
121. 

Primitive  beliefs:  gone  back  to, 
46 ;  trustworthy  when  reached, 
66. 

Rawlinson,  quotation  from,  56. 

Reading  the  New  Testament  with 
the  Old,  113. 

Record  of  events  unique,  89. 

Relation  of  the  Old  to  New,  91. 

Rejection  of  inspiration,  26. 

Renan :  remarks  of,  58 ;  his  mis- 
take, 162. 


Redemption :  a  fundamental  idea 
of  the  world,  89 ;  of  single  souls, 
90. 

Resurrection  in  Old  Testament, 
105. 

Results,  21. 

Responsibility  for  reception  or  re- 
jection, 16. 

Revelation :  the,  7  ;  John's  method 
in,  81. 

Robertson,  quotation  from,  172. 

Robinson,  quotation  from,  215. 

Sanguinary  Psalms,  239. 
Sanity  of  biblical  writers,  184. 
Sayce,  quotation  from,  235. 
Scenes,  of  facts  and  persons,  23. 
Schleiermacher,    quotation  from, 

87. 
Scriptures  affectionately  regarded, 

144. 
Search  simplified  by  inspiration, 

25. 
Secular  versus  religious  scholar- 
ship, 197. 
Self-knowledge  not  easy,  65. 
Semitic  carelessness  about  dates, 

209. 
Shairp,  quotation  from,  80. 
Smith,  quotation  from,  189. 
Stevens,  quotation  from,  232. 
Spiritual  instincts,  16,  37. 
Spurgeon,  quotations  from,  183. 
Subjects    that    demand  inspired 

record,  143. 
Symbols,  in  their  New  Testament 

interpretation,  112. 

Testimony  of  experience,  124, 
Theory,  none  absolutely  consist- 
ent, 84. 
Theories :  in  their  agreement,  30 ; 
parallel,  35 ;  each  theory  ex- 
plains some  things,  32 ;  dynamic 
theory,  31 ;   verbal   theory,  33 ; 


INDEX 


251 


thought  theorj-,  32 ;  all  to  be 
recognized,  35  ;  no  one  held  con- 
sistently, 34. 
Trend :  definition  of,  29,  32  ;  covers 
all  theories,  33 ;  traced  every- 
where, 198, 199  ;  in  argiunent  for 
God,  38;  of  the  book,  31;  of 
each  view,  30 ;  magnetic,  29 ; 
strength  of,  24G. 

Universal  expectation  of  inspira- 
tion, 141. 

Uninspired  Bible  would  hurt  us 
rather  than  help,  24. 

Verification:    of  fact  by   experi- 


ence, 127 ;  of  one  method  by  an- 
other, 129. 
Vital  eye,  34. 

Warranted  expectations,  152. 

Whateley's  definition  of  induc- 
tion, 42. 

Wordsworth's  poetical  descrip- 
tions scientific,  80. 

Worth  of  experience  in  argument 
for  others,  123. 

Winchell,  quotation  from,  245. 

Wrong  conception  of  Bible:  is 
vital  wrong  against  self,  17 ;  is 
against  God,  18. 


Date  Due 

1             *>      -5 

u 

— 

i 

^ 

BS480 .F26 

Inspiration  considered  as  a  trend. 


Princeton  Theological  Semlnary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00051   89,61 


